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THE 


LIFE  AID  TIMES 


OF 


HENEY    CLAY. 


BY    CALVIN    COLTON, 

ilTTHOR    OF    THE    "JUNIUS    TRACTS" — "FOUR   YEARS    IN    GREAT    BRITAIN" — "TOUR    OF 

THE   AMERICAN   LAKES,"    ETC. 


IN    TWO    VOLUMES, 

VOL.    II. 


SECOND      EDITION. 


NEW    YORK: 
PUBLISHED    BY    A.    S.    BARNES    &    CO., 

51    JOHN    STREET. 
1846. 


Entered  accorJing  to  Act  of  Conqjross,  in  the  ycttr  1  >?•).■>, 

By  CALVIN  COLTON, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United   Stiites.  in  nnd  for  the  Saathf-rn 

District  of  New  York. 


STERKUTYPKI)    r.Y    KK  tUl  KI.D    ,t    SAVAGE, 
13  Ch:mihcr»  Sireel,  N    Y. 

C.    A      Al.VOHl),    I'ltlNTKR, 
CORNER   OK   JOHN    AMD    DUTCH    STREETS. 


N  O  1"  K 


In  the  introduction  of  this  work,  the  author  announced  as  one 
of  his  rules  in  its  composition,  that  he  had  confined  himself  to  the 
life  and  career  of  Mr.  Clay,  and  thai  he  does  not  profess  to  give 
history  any  further  than  Mr.  Clay  has  been  coimected  with  it.  He 
also  suiTirested,  that  he  has  not  been  able  to  use  all  the  materials 
found  within  these  limits.  It  will  be  obvious,  therefore,  that  wide 
as  has  been  his  range,  and  comprehensive  as  has  been  the  view 
of  public  affairs  which  he  has  been  obliged  to  take,  the  history 
contained  in  these  volumes  is  rather  personal  than  general. 

It  can  not  but  be  observed,  that  Mr.  Clay's  public  life  has  been 
one  of  conflict,  and  that  the  principles  and  measures  he  has  advo- 
cated, have  been  stormed  by  opposition,  often  amounting  to  ani- 
mated hostility,  and  sometimes  to  bitter  personal  animosity.  It 
can  not,  therefore,  be  surprising,  but  should  be  expected,  that  the 
author,  sympathizing  with  Mr.  Clay's  principles,  and  with  himself 
when  assailed  on  account  of  his  principles,  should  earnestly,  when 
he  could  conscientiously,  defend  both  the  one  and  the  other. 
How  else  could  he  do  justice  to  his  subject? 

This  duty  of  the  author  has  necessarily  led  him  to  use  some 
freedom  of  remark  toward  public  men.  The  times  of  Mr.  Clay 
have  been  characterized  with  strife  for  great  and  vital  principles  of 
a  young  republic.  In  whatever  he  has  been  right,  he  could  not 
be  vindicated,  without  a  showing  of  the  wrong;  and  it  has  so  hap- 
pened, that  the  wrong  done  to  the  country,  as  well  as  to  Mr.  Clay, 
has,  in  some  instances,  according  to  the  convictions  of  the  author, 
been  very  great  and  flagrant.  It  was  unavoidable,  therefore,  that 
he  should  speak  of  all  concerned  in  these  controversies,  us  tlic 


4  NOTE. 

merits  of  the  questions  seemed  to  require.  However  undesirable 
it  may  be  in  itself,  to  arraign  the  by-gone  acts  of  those  who  occupy 
eminent  positions  in  society,  duty  to  the  commonwealth  is  para- 
mount to  respect  for  individuals,  if  tlieir  conduct  demands  animad- 
version. If  anything  can  purchase  impunity  for  political  offences, 
or  silence  remonstrance,  or  seal  up  the  records  of  history,  the 
strongest  motives  to  fidelity  in  the  public  service  are  destroyed. 

The  author  has  endeavored  so  to  exhibit  the  political  history 
of  the  country,  which  was  necessarily  involved  in  his  undertaking, 
as  to  show  its  practical  bearings  on  the  great  interests  of  the 
people. 

It  will  be  seen,  that  he  has  endeavored  to  give  form  to 
an  important  doctrine  on  the  subject  of  protection,  not  before 
clearly  defined.  If  he  has  succeeded  in  showing,  that  political 
freedom  for  the  masses  is  indissolubly  connected  with  protection 
of  their  labor,  where  such  freedom  exists,  he  will  have  accom- 
plished what  he  very  much  desired,  as  he  sincerely  believes,  that 
all  that  is  necessary  to  the  protective  policy,  in  and  for  the 
United  States,  is  comprehended  in  a  right  understanding  of  the 
relation  between  labor  as  an  agent  or  power  and  labor  as 
AN  INDEPENDENT  AGENT.  He  thinks  that  the  entire  doctrine 
of  the  protective  policy  in  this  country,  must  ultimately  resolve 
itself  into  this,  and  that  when  it  is  fully  understood,  there  will  be 
nothing  else  of   it,  but  the    simple  principle — labor  against 

POWER. 

The  rights  of  property  and  of  labor  once  secured,  the  great  end 
of  political  society  would  seem  to  be  accomplished.  Then,  and 
not, till  then,  will  labor  have  its  own  fair  and  rightful  chances  to 
acquire  property,  retain  it,  and  be  independent.  Nothing,  there- 
fore, has  a  greater  interest  in  maintaining  and  vindicating  the  rights 
of  property,  when  its  own  rights  are  secured,  than  labor,  in  all  its 
departments,  intellectual,  professional,  artistical,  agricultural,  man- 
ufacturing, mechanical,  commercial,  and  manipulation  of  every 
description — whatever,  indeed,  is  labor  necessary  to  the  wants  of 
man  and  to  the  perfection  of  the  social  state. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 


Page. 
CHAPTER  I \9 

.  The  Currency. — Mr.  Clay's  Views  in  1811. — His  Change  of  Opinion  on  a 
I  National  Bank. — Reasons. — The  Constitutional  Question. — Not  Banks,  but  a 
Tariff,  that  makes  Money  Plenty  and  Sound. — Losses  to  the  Country  by  State 
Banks. — General  Jackson's  Veto  of  the  Bank  in  1832. — Reasons. — Remarks 
of  Mr.  Clay  on  the  Veto.— The  Motives  out  of  Sight. — The  Wiles  of  the  Ma- 
gician.— The  Way  the  State  of  New  York  was  brought  under. — How  General 
Jackson  attempted  to  bring  the  Nation  under. — Failure. — Vengeance. 

C  HAPTER  H 29 

The  Currency. — Mr.  Van  Burcn's  Accession. — The  Extra  Session  of  1837. — 
The  Sub-Treasury. — Its  Failure  at  the  Extra  Session. — Subsequent  Debate  on 
the  Message. — Mr.  Clay's  Views  of  it. — His  Examination  of  the  Gradual 
Opening  of  General  Jackson's  Scheme  of  a  Government  Bank. — Mr.  Clay's 
Argument  in  1838,  and  his  Warning  on  the  Passage  of  the  Bill  in  1840. — Mr. 
Van  Buren's  Servility  proves  his  Destruction, — Capital  and  Labor. — The 
Philosophy  of  Currency, 

CHAPTER  HI 68 

Removal  of  the  Deposites. — Care  of  the  Public  Funds  committed  by  Law  to 
Congress,  and  by  Law  forbidden  to  the  Executive. — An  Opinion  of  the  Su- 
preme Court. — The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  an  Agent  of  Congress,  i^  of 
the  Executive. — Required  to  make  his  Report  to  Congress. — The  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  reads  a  Lecture  to  Congress,  and  helps  them  out  of  a  Difficulty. 
— An  Employee  that  has  more  Power  than  his  Principals. — The  Airs  of  an 
unrobed  Official. — Mr.  Clay's  Resolutions. — Remarks. — A  Revolution. — The 
Judiciary  humbled. — The  President  takes  the  Responsibility. — Mr.  Clay's 
Views. — Correspondence  between  General  Jackson  and  Mr.  Duane. — The 
President  takes  Change  of  Morals,  &c. — A  Caesar. — Mr.  Duane's  noble  Con- 
duct, 

CHAPTER  IV 101 

Removal  of  the  Deposites. — A  Locum  Tenens. — Difficulty  of  the  Secretary's 
Task. — His  Reasons  for  removing  the  Deposites. — What  Mr.  Clay  thought. — 
The  Secretary  lectures  Congress  on  Law,  Politics,  Affairs  of  State,  Free  In- 
stitutions, and  other  Matters. — The  Relevancy  of  these  Topics  to  Finance  con- 
sidered.— False  Position  of  the  Secretary  .--Consequences. — Sometimes  ria'ht. 
Sometimes  wrong. — In  a  Strait  betwixt  Two, — Orders  fr  m  one  Quartei-. — 
Responsibility  in  Another. — Sinks  between  two  Boats. 


6  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  V 122 

The  Expunging  Resolution. — The  Secret  of  Genera]  Jackson's  Power. — Its 
Cnlminatins;  Point. — Armed  Interpretation  of  Law. — Silencing  Remonstrance. 
— A  Case  of  Political  Casuistr)'. — General  Jackson's  Protest  against  the  Reso- 
lution of  the  Senate. — Mr.  Calhoun's  Views  of  It. — Revival  of  the  Namts  of 
Whig  and  Tory. — Why  both  were  not  kept  up. — Tlie  Yeas  and  Nays  on  the 
Expunging  Resolution. — Remarks  of  Mr.  Clay. — Protest  of  the  Massachusetts 
Senators. — The  Resolution. — Act  of  Expunging. — A  Scene  in  the  Senate. 

CHAPTER  VI 138 

The  Protective  Policy. — A  New  Doctrine  in  Political  Economy. — The  Pro- 
tective Poficy  and  Freedom  identical. — Mr.  Clay's  Debut  on  the  Protective 
Policy. — His  first  Speech  in  Congress  on  the  Subject. — Protection  of  the  In- 
terests of  Navigation. — Navigation  Acts. — Condition  of  Manufactures  after 
the  War  of  1812.— Tariff  of  1816.— Its  Inadequacy.— The  Unsuccessful  At- 
tempt for  a  Tariff  in  1820.— Mr.  Clay's  Eflbrts  at  that  Time.— Disastrous 
Consequences  of  the  Failure. — The  Tariff  of  1824. — Mr.  Clay's  Exertions  in 
'  its  behalf. — Machine  Power. — A  Measure  of  the  Wealth  of  Nations. — Balance 
of  Trade. — Policy  of  European  States. — Russian  Policy. — Policy  of  Napoleon. 
— What  the  British  think  of  American  Policy. — American  Free  Trade  Policy 
is  British  Policy  for  America. 

CHAPTER  VII 176 

The  Protective  Policy. — The  Opening  of  a  New  Era.— Control  of  Moral 
Causes  over  the  Destiny  of  Nations. — General  Jackson's  Jealousy  of  Mr. 
Clay. — The  Edect  of  this  Jealousy  on  the  Protective  Policy. — ^Nations  Foot- 
Balls  to  Kings. — First  Demonstration  of  an  Attack  on  the  Protective  Policy. 
#  — Mr.  Clay  comes  to  the  Rescue. — Proposes  a  Resolution  in  the  Senate  for 
the  Reduction  of  Duties  on  Unprotected  Articles. — Who  responsible  for  the 
Tariff  of  1828. — Parliamentary  Advantage  of  Mr.  Clay's  Resolution. — Notice 
of  his  Speech  upon  it. — His  Reply  to  Mr.  Hnyne,  of  South  Carolina. — Two 
Great  Cycles  of  National  Poverty  and  Wealth. — One  of  the  Greatest  Efforts 
of  Mr.  Clay  in  defence  of  the  Protective  Policy. 

CHAPTER  VIII 213 

The  Compromise  Tarij-f. — Mr.  Clay's  Views  of  Public  Policy  in  a  Letter  to 
^he  Hon.  J.  S.  Johnston. — Controversy  between  the  President  and  Vice-Presi- 
dent, General  Jackson  and  Mr.  Calhoun. — Pilate  and  Herod  agree  in  one 
Thing.^Nullification. — General  Jackson~attempts  to  kill  two  Birds  at  one 
Throw. — Fails  to  kill  either. — Publication  of  the  Ordinance  of  Nullifica- 
tion.— General  Jackson's  Proclamation. — Governor  Hayne's  Counter  Procla- 
mation.— South  Carolina  in  a  State  of  Rebellion. — Mr.  Clay's  Opinion  of 
General  Jackson's  Proclamation  in  a  Private  Letter. — The  Proclamation  a 
Failure. — General  Jackson  misses  his  Game. — Mr.  Clay  on  the  Alert  to  save 
the  Protective  Policy. — Difficulties  of  his  Position. — Matures  his  Plan. — 
Proposes  the  Compromise. — Explains  it  to  the  Senate. — Analysis  of  the  Bill. 
— Its  favorable  Reception. — The  Administration  (Mr.  Verplanck's)  Bill  un- 
der Par. — A  Private  Letter  from  Mr.  Clay  of  this  Date. 

CHAPTER   IX 234 

The  Compromise  Tariff. — Mr.  Clay's  Reply  to  Objections. — The  Perilous 
Position  of  the  Protective  Policy  at  the  Moment. — Triumph  of  the  Compro- 
mise.— Its  Iini  ediate  Effect. — The  Compromise  Act  not  carried  out  by  Gen- 


/■ 


CONTENTS.  / 

eral  Jackson.— Partially  Defeated  by  Strangling  the  Land  Bill.— Mr.  Clay's 
later  Statements  on  the  Subject.— His  Reply  to  Mr.  Calhoun,  in  1840. — The 
Grand  Result.— Hon.  Jolin  M.  Clayton's  Account  of  the  Compromise  De- 
bate.  Mr.  Dallas's  Motion  in  the  Senate,  and  Mr.  Polk's  Statement  in  Ten- 
nessee.—Letter  of  Mr.  Clay  to  Mr.  Clayton.— Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Randolph. 

CHAPTER  X 265 

NuLLiiTCATioN  VERSUS  A  SOUTHERN  PLANTER. — Doctrine  of  the  Nullificrs. 

Its  Absurdities. — The  Teachings  of  a  Southern  Planter  contrasted  with  the 
Doctrines  of  Nullification. 

CHAPTER   XI 289 

History  of  Opinion  on  the  Protective  Policy. — Opinion  of  Presidents  in 
Messages  to  Congress. — General  Jackson's  Letter  to  Doctor  Coleman. — 
Opinion  of  the  Tammany  Society,  in  1819. — Opinion  of  the  Framers  of  the 
Constitution — of  the  First  Convention  at  Annapolis,  1786 — and  of  the  First 
Congress  under  the  Constitution. 

CHAPTER  XII 305 

Political  Economy  as  it  respects  the  Protective  Policy. — Protective 
Duties  not  a  Tax,  but  a  Rescue  from  Taxation. — A  Sketch  of  Taxation  in 
Great  Britain. — Adequate  Protection  saves  the  Country  fifty  per  cent,  in  the 
Cost  of  Articles  protected. — The  Parties  who  Realize  this  Saving. — How  the 
Protective  Policy  distributes  its  Benefits  to  all  Classes. — Meaning  of  the 
Balance  of  Trade. — History  of  its  Results  against  the  United  States. — Its 
Results  in  Favor  of  Great  Britain. — Effects  of  the 'tariff  of  1842. — Impor- 
tance of  Domej;tic  Commerce. — The  Protective  Policy  necessary  to  counter- 
vail the  Machine  Power  of  Great  Britain. — Necessary  to  the  Capital  of 
Labor. — How  the  Nation  ran  in  Debt. — Relative  Position  of  European  Capi- 
tal "and  Labor  to  American  Capital  and  Labor. — The  Laissez-Faire  Princi- 
ple.— Great  Britain  not  returning  to  Free  Trade. — The  only  Way  to  have  a 
Sound  and  Adequate  Currency. 

CHAPTER  XIII 333 

Mr.  Clay's  Eastern  Tour  in  1833. — Private  Letter  and  Project  of  this  Tour, 
— Public  Gratitude. — Reception  at  Baltimore. — At  Philadelphia. — At  New 
York. — At  Providence. — At  Boston. — At  Charlestown. — At  Bunker's  Hill. — In 
Faneuil  Hall. — At  Lowell. — At  Danvers. — At  Salem. — Sundry  interesting 
Occurrences  in  Boston  and  Vicinity. — Correspondence,  Addresses,  and  An- 
swers.— Reception  at  Worcester. — At  Hartford. — At  Springfield. — At  Troy. 
— At  Albany. — At  Newark.-— His  Return  to  Washington,  through  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  and  Wilmington. — Recognition  of  this  Tour  in  a  Pri- 
vate Letter. 

CHAPTER  XIV 355  » 

Mr.  Clay  and  the  Twenty-Seventh  Congress. — General  Harrison's  Ac- 
cession.— His  Death. — A  Vice-President  not  a  President. — The  Great  Apos- 
tate.— Proud  Position  of  a  Party  prostituted  by  a  faithless  Chief. — What 
could  have  been  done. — One  good  Thing  achieved. — Mr.  Clay's  Position  in 
the  Twenty-Seventh  Congress. — The  First  Act  of  Executive  Perfidy. — The 
Traitor  known  to  Some  before. — Notice  of  Mr.  Clay's  Speech  on  the  Veto  of 
the  Bank  Bill. — Mr.  Rives's  Reply. — Mr.  Clay's  Rejoinder. — Its  overpower- 
ing Effect. 


8  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XV 376 

Mk.  Clay  and  the  Twenty-Seventh  Congress. — What  gained  and  What 
lost. — Perfidy  of  the  Acting  President. — Mr.  Clay's  Position. — His  Plan  of 
National  Policy  and  Reform,  submitted  in  the  Form  of  Resolutions. — State- 
ment and  Consideration  of  this  Plan. — Objects  aimed  at  in  1840. — Doom  of 
the  then  existing  Administration. — Could  not  reform. — Must  therefore  forge 
Chains. — Project  for  a  Standing  Army  of  200,000. — The  Sub-Treasury. — 
Disclosures  of  Extravagance  and  Corruption  made  by  the  Twenty -Seventh 
Congress. — Their  Fidelity. 

CHAPTER  XVI 404 

Mr.  Ciay's  Resignation  and  Valedictory  Address. 

CHAPTER  XVII 412 

Mr.  Clay  in  Retirement. — The  Barbecue  at  Lexington  in  Honor  of  Mr. 
Clay. — The  Sentiment  addressed  to  him. — His  Speech  on  the  Occasion. — 
Personal  Matters. — Public  Affairs. — The  Hoary  Statesman  in  Private  Life. 

CHAPTER  XVIII 423 

The  Presidential  Campaign  of  1844. — Causes  of  the  Early  Movement  of 
1844. — Baltimore  Whig  Convention. — Its  Enthusiasm  and  High  Hopes. — • 
Nomination  by  Acclamation. — Mr.  Frelinghuysen. — Causes  of  Defeat. — Party 
Names. — The  Texas  Question. — Political  Letters  of  Candidates. — The  Whigs 
a  Patriotic  Party,  but  want  Discipline. — Mr.  Van  Buren  put  off  the  Course  by 
the  Whigs. — Executive  Patronage. — Texas  Treaty. — Native  Americans. — 
Abolition. — Action  of  Mr.  Clay's  Namesake. — Defects  of  Whig  Organiza- 
tions.— Betting  on  Elections. — Election  Frauds. — Mr.  Clay  elected  by  the 
Legal  Vote  of  the  Country. 

CHAPTER  XIX 444 

The  Disappointment. — Remarks  on  the  Occasion. — Extracts  from  Letters  of 
numerous  Persons,  of  all  Classes,  in  all  Parts  of  the  Union,  expressive  of  their 
Feelings  in  View  of  the  Result  of  the  Presidential  Election  of  1844. — Notice 
of  Similar  Documents  of  Political  Associations. 

CHAPTER  XX 457 

Reflections.  —  Mr.  Clay's  Influence  on  American  Society.  —  The  Protective 
Policy.— Public  Wrongs  to  Mr.  Clay.— The  Oregon  Question  settled  by  Mr. 
Clay.— The  Public  Land  Policy. — Fickleness  of  Legislation.— The  Administra- 
tions of  Harrison  and  Tyler. — A  Glance  at  the  Future. 

CHAPTER  XXI 489 

LAST    SEVEN    YEARS    OF    MR.    CLAy's    LIFE. 

Mr.  Clay  in  Retirement  after  1844. — His  Profession  of  Religion. — Mr.  Clay 
on  the  Mexican  War.— Honors  to  Mr.  Clay  by  Ladies  and  Artists.— Mr.  Clay 
at  New  Orleans.— His  Appeal  for  Ireland.— Fall  of  his  Son,  Col.  Clay,  at 
Buena  Vista.— Mr.  Clay's  Visit  to  Capo  May.— Mr.  Clay  at  Washington, 
1847-8.— In  the  Supreme  Court.— General  Taylor's  Election.— Ingratitude  of 
the  Nation.— Mr.  Clay's  Return  to  the  Senate.— His  last  Public  Services.— 
His  Death. 

J''"'^^ ;: 531 


>  ^    )      I 


THE 


LIFE   AND  TIMES 


OF 


HENRY    CLAY. 


CHAPTER  1. 

THE    CURRENCY. 

Mr.  Clay's  Views  in  1811. — His  Change  of  Opinion  on  a  National  Bank. — Rea- 
sons.— The  Constitutional  Question. — Not  Banks,  but  a  Tarifi,  that  makes 
Money  plenty  and  sound. — Losses  to  the  Country  by  State  Banks. — General 
Jackson's  Veto  of  the  Bank  in  1832. — Reasons. — Remarks  of  Mr.  Clay  on  the 
Veto. — The  Motives  out  of  Sight. — The  Wiles  of  the  Magician. — The  Way  the 
State  of  New  York  was  brought  under. — How  General  Jackson  attempted  to 
bring  the  Nation  under. — Failure. — Vengeance. 

When  Mr.  Clay  made  his  speech,  in  1811,  against  recharter- 
ing  the  bank  of  the  United  States,  he  found  occasion  to  rehearse 
the  following  anecdote  of  Patrick  Henry  : — 

"  He  mistook,  in  one  instance,  the  side  of  the  cause  in  which 
he  was  retained,  and  addressed  the  court  and  jury  in  a  very  mas- 
terly and  convincing  speech,  in  behalf  of  his  antagonist.  His 
distracted  client  came  up  to  him,  while  he  was  thus  employed,  and, 
interrupting  him,  bitterly  exclaimed  :  '  You  have  undone  me  ! 
You  have  ruined  me  !' — '  Never  mind — give  yourself  no  concern,' 
said  the  adroit  advocate  ;  and  turning  to  the  court  and  jury,  con- 
tinued his  argument,  by  observing,  '  May  it  please  your  honors, 
and  you,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  I  have  been  stating  to  you  what  1 
presume  my  adversary  may  urge  on  his  side.  I  will  now  show 
you  how  fallacious  his  reasonings,  and  groundless  his  pretensions 
are.'  The  skilful  orator  proceeded,  satisfactorily  refuted  every 
argument  he  had  advanced,  and  gained  his  cause !" 

It  can  not  be  denied,  that  Mr.  Clay  made  a  very  able  argument 
on  that  occasion,  and  that  either  his  argument,  or  his  vote,  or  both, 
defeated  the  bill ;  for  it  passed  the  house  of  representatives,  and 
was  lost  in  the,  senate,  of  which  Mr.  Clay  was  then  a  member. 


10  :     ,    THE    CURREXCY. 

only  by  the, caeting' vote  of  the  vice-president,  Mr.  Chnton.  But 
i\\  Mr.v€ray''f;"afguiment  on  the  same  subject,  in  1816,  like  Pat- 
rick Henry,  he  beat  himself,  "  and  gained  his  cause."  His  speech 
on  the  last  occasion,  in  committee  of  the  house  of  representatives, 
of  which  he  was  then  member  and  speaker,  was  never  published ; 
but  in  an  address  to  his  constituents  at  Lexington,  June  3,  1816, 
his  views  and  reasons  in  supporting  the  bank  are  succinctly  and 
forcibly  stated,  of  which  he  afterward,  in  1832,  said :  "  By  the 
reasons  assigned  in  it  for  the  change  of  my  opinion,  I  am  ready 
to  abide,  in  the  judgment  of  the  present  generation,  and  of  pos- 
terity." He  also  said  on  the  same  occasion  :  "  During  a  long 
public  life  (I  mention  the  fact  not  as  claiming  any  merit  for 
it),  the  only  great  question,  on  which  I  have  ever  changed  my 
opinion,  is  that  of  the  bank  of  the  United  States."  It  might,  per- 
haps, more  properly  be  called  a  change  of  sides,  than  of  opinion ; 
for  the  reasons  which  shaped  and  controlled  his  opinion  in  1811, 
are  as  different  from  those  which  swayed  him  in  1816,  as  one  opin- 
ion varies  from  the  other ;  and  there  is  no  inconsistency  in  his  ac- 
tion in  the  two  cases,  when  the  reasons  of  both  are  considered. 
It  was  not,  therefore,  strictly  speaking,  a  change  of  opinion;  but  a 
change  of  circumstances  in  the  state  of  the  country  and  in  the  state 
of  the  question,  which  led  to  different  views  with  a  statesman. 
Since,  however,  Mr.  Clay  himself  has  allowed  it  to  be  a  change 
of  opinion,  others  are  not  required  to  arraign  this  admission, 
though  it  may  be  suggested,  that  its  ingenuousness  might  naturally 
create  additional  confidence  in  that  correctness  of  judgment  which 
has  never  required,  and  that  firmness  of  character  which  has  never 
shown,  a  change  on  any  other  great  national  question. 

But,  it  is  due  to  INIr.  Clay»to  show  the  reasons  of  this  change. 
They  are  few,  simple,  and  obvious.  In  Mr.  Clay's  address  to  his 
constituents,  June  3,  1816,  he  gave  three  reasons  for  his  oppo- 
sition to  the  bank  in  1811  :  "  First,  that  he  was  instructed  to  op- 
pose it  by  the  legislature  of  the  state.  Next,  that  he  believed  the 
corporation  had,  during  a  portion  of  the  period  of  its  existence, 
abused  its  power,  and  had  sought  to  subserve  the  views  of  a  po- 
litical parly."  In  answer  to  the  question,  "  What  security  is 
there,  that  the  new  bank  [of  1816]  will  not  imitate  this  example?" 
he  replied  :  "  The  fate  of  the  old  bank,  warning  all  similar  insti- 
tutions to  shun  politics  ;  the  existence  of  abundant  competition, 
arising  from  the  great  multiplication  of  banks  ;  and  the  precautions 
which  are  to  be  found  in  the  details  of  the  act." 


THE    CURRENCY.  11 

'  A  third  consideration  [said  Mr.  Clay]  upon  which  he  acted  in 
1811,  was,  that  as  the  power  to  create  a  corporation,  such  as  was  pro- 
posed to  be  continued,  was  not  specifically  granted  in  the  constitution, 
and  did  not  then  appear  to  him  to  be  necessary  to  carry  into  effect  any 
of  the  powers  which  were  specifically  granted.  Congress  was  not 
authorized  to  continue  the  bank.  The  constitution,  he  said,  con- 
tained powers  delegated  and  prohibitory,  powers  expressed  and 
constructive.  It  vests  in  Congress  all  powers  nccessarij  to  give 
effect  to  the  enumerated  powers — all  that  may  be  necessary  to  put 
into  motion  and  activity  the  machine  of  government  which  it  con- 
structs. The  powers  that  may  be  so  necessary  are  deducible  by 
construction.  They  are  not  defined  in  the  constitution.  They 
are,  from  their  nature,  indefinable.  When  the  question  is  in  rela- 
tion to  one  of  these  powers,  the  point  of  inquiry  should  be,  is  its 
exertion  necessary  to  carry  into  effect  any  of  the  enumerated  pow- 
ers and  objects  of  the  general  government?  With  regard  to  the 
degree  of  necessity,  various  rules  have  been,  at  different  times, 
laid  down  ;  but,  perhaps,  at  last,  there  is  no  other  than  a  sound 
and  honest  judgment  exercised,  under  the  checks  and  control 
which  belong  to  the  constitution  and  to  the  people. 

"  The  constructive  powers  being  auxiliary  to  the  specifically 
granted  powers,  and  depending  for  their  sanction  and  existence 
upon  a  necessity  to  give  effect  to  the  latter,  which  necessity  is  to 
be  sought  for  and  ascertained  by  a  sound  and  honest  discretion,  it 
is  manifest  that  this  necessity  rnny  not  he  'perceived,  at  one  time, 
under  one  state  of  things,  wlicn  it  is  perceived  at  another  time,  under 
a  different  state  of  things.  The  constitution,  it  is  true,  never 
changes  ;  it  is  always  the  same  ;  but  the  force  of  circumstances 
and  the  lights  of  experience  may  evolve  to  the  fallible  persons 
charged  with  its  administration,  the  fitness  and  necessity  of  a  par- 
ticular exercise  of  constructive  power  to-day,  which  they  did  not 
see  at  a  former  period. 

"  Mr.  Clay  proceeded  to  remark,  that  when  the  application  was 
made  to  renew  the  old  charter  of  the  bank  of  the  United  States, 
such  an  institution  did  not  appear  to  him  to  be  so  necessary  to  the 
fulfilment  of  any  of  the  objects  specifically  enumerated  in  the  con- 
stitution, as  to  justify  Congress  in  assuming,  by  construction,  a 
power  to  establish  it.  It  was  supported  mainly  upon  the  ground 
that  it  was  indispensable  to  the  treasury  operations.  But  the  local 
institutions  in  the  several  states  were  at  that  time  in  prosperous 
existence,  confided  in  by  the  community,  having  a  confidence  in 
each  other,  and  maintaining  an  intercourse  and  connexion  the 
most  intimate.  Many  of  them  were  actually  employed  by  the 
treasury  to  aid  that  department,  in  a  part  of  its  fiscal  arrange- 
ments ;  and  they  appeared  to  him  to  be  fully  capable  of  affording 
to  it  all  the  faciHty  that  it  ought  to  desire  in  all  of  them.  Th^v 
superseded,  in  his  judgment,  the  necessity  of  a  national  instifu- 


■"'2  THE    CURRENCY. 

don.     But  how  stood  the  case  in  1S16,  when  he  was  called  up 
again  to  examine  the  power  of  the  general  government  to  incor- 
porate a  national  bank  ?     A  total  change  of  circumstances  was 
presented — events  of  the  utmost  magnitude  had  intervened. 

"A  general  suspension  of  specie  payments  had  taken  place, 
and  this  had  led  to  a  train  of  consequences  of  the  most  alarming 
nature.  He  beheld,  dispersed  over  the  immense  extent  of  the 
United  States,  about  three  hundred  banking  institutions,  enjoying 
in  dilierent  degrees  the  confidence  of  the  public,  shaken  as  to 
them  all,  under  no  direct  control  of  the  general  government,  and 
subject  to  no  actual  responsibility  to  the  state  authorities.  These 
institutions  were  emitting  the  actual. currency  of  the  United  States 
— a  currency  consisting  of  a  paper,  on  which  they  neither  paid 
interest  nor  principal,  while  it  was  exchanged  for  the  paper  of  the 
community,  on  which  both  were  paid.  He  saw  these  institutions 
in  fact  exercising  what  had  been  considered,  at  all  times,  and  in 
all  countries,  one  of  the  highest  attributes  of  sovereignty,  the  reg- 
ulation of  the  current  medium  of  the  country.  They  were  no 
longer  competent  to  assist  the  treasury  in  either  of  the  great  oper- 
ations of  collection,  deposite,  or  distribution,  of  the  public  rev- 
enues. In  fact,  the  paper  which  they  emitted,  and  which  the 
treasury,  from  the  force  of  events,  found  itself  constrained  to  re- 
ceive, was  constantly  obstructing  the  operations  of  that  depart- 
ment. For  it  would  accumulate  where  it  was  not  wanted,  and 
could  not  be  used  where  it  was  wanted  for  the  purposes  of  gov- 
ernment, without  a  ruinous  and  arbitrary  brokerage.  Every  man 
who  paid  or  received  from  the  government,  paid  or  received  as 
much  less  than  he  oudit  to  have  done  as  was  the  difference  be- 
tween  the  medium  in  which  the  payment  was  effected  and  specie. 
Taxes  were  no  longer  uniform.  In  New  England,  where  specie 
pryments  have  not  been  suspended,  the  people  were  called  upon  , 
to  pay  larger  contributions  than  where  they  were  suspended.  In 
Kentucky  as  much  more  was  paid  by  the  people  in  their  taxes 
than  was  paid,  for  example,  in   the  state  of  Ohio,  as  Kentucky 

paper  was  worth  more  than  Ohio  paper. 

******** 

"  Mr.  Clay  said,  he  determined  to  examine  the  question  with  as 
little  prejudice  as  possible  arising  from  his  former  opinion.  He 
knew  that  the  safest  course  to  him,  if  he  pursued  a  cold,  calcu- 
lating prudence,  was  to  adhere  to  that  opinion,  right  or  wrong. 
He  was  perfectly  aware,  that  if  he  changed,  or  seemed  to  change 
it,  he  should  expose  himself  to  some  censure.  But,  looking  at  the 
subject  with  the  light  shed  upon  it  by  events  happening  since  the 
commencement  of  the  war,  he  could  no  longer  doubt.  A  bank 
appeared  to  him  not  only  necessary,  but  indispensably  necessary, 
in  connexion  with  another  measure,  to  remedy  the  evils  of  which 
all  were  but  too  sensible.      He  preferred  to  the  suggestions  of  the 


THE    CURRENCY.  13 

pride  of  consistency,  the  evident  interests  of  the  community,  and 
determined  to  throw  himself  upon  their  candor  and  justice.  That 
which  appeared  to  him  in  1811,  under  the  state  of  things  then  ex- 
isting, not  to  be  necessary  to  the  general  government,  seemed  now 
to  be  necessary,  under  the  present  state  of  things.  Had  he  then 
foreseen  what  now  exists,  and  no  objection  had  lain  against  the 
renewal  of  the  charter  other  than  that  derived  from  the  constitu- 
tion, he  should  have  voted  for  the  renewal. 

"  Other  provisions  of  the  constitution,  but  little  noticed,  if  no- 
ticed at  all,  in  the  discussions  in  Congress  in  1811,  would  seem 
to  urge  that  body  to  exert  all  its  powers  to  restore  to  a  sound  state 
the  money  of  the  country.  That  instrument  confers  upon  Con- 
gress the  power  to  coin  money,  and  to  regulate  the  value  of  for- 
eign coins;  and  the  states  are  prohibited  to  coin  money,  to  emit 
bills  of  credit,  or  to  make  anything  but  gold  and  silver  coin  a 
tender  in  payment  of  debts.  The  plain  inference  is,  that  the  sub- 
ject of  the  general  currency  was  intended  to  be  submitted  exclu- 
sively to  the  general  government.  In  point  of  fact,  however,  the 
regulation  of  the  general  currency  is  in  the  hands  of  the  statu 
governments,  or,  which  is  the  same  thing,  of  the  banks  created  by 
them.  Their  paper  has  every  quality  of  money,  except  that  of 
being  made  a  tender,  and  even  this  is  imparted  to  it  by  some  states, 
in  the  law  by  which  a  creditor  must  receive  it,  or  submit  to  a  ru- 
inous suspension  of  the  payment  of  his  debt.  It  was  incumbent 
upon  Congress  to  recover  the  control  which  it  had  lost  over  the 
general  currency." 

In  the  above  citations  are  seen  the  ground  which  Mr.  Clay  oc- 
cupied on  the  bank  question,  in  1811,  and  that  occupied  by  him 
in  1816,  and  ever  smce.  At  the  former  period  he  labored  some- 
what haltingly  on  the  constitutional  argument,  and  one  of  the 
pleasantest,  if  not  the  most  forcible  illustrations  he  then  presented, 
is  the  following  : — 

"  A  bank  is  made  for  the  ostensible  purpose  of  aiding  in  the 
collection  of  the  revenue,  and  while  it  is  engaged  in  this,  the  most 
inferior  and  subordinate  of  all  its  functions,  it  is  made  to  diffuse 
itself  throughout  society,  and  to  influence  all  the  great  operations 
of  credit,  circulation,  and  commerce.  Like  the  Virginia  justice, 
you  tell  the  man  whose  turkey  had  been  stolen,  that  your  books 
of  precedent  furnish  no  form  for  his  case,  but  that  you  will  grant 
him  a  precept  to  search  for  a  cow,  and  when  looking  for  that  he 
may  possibly  find  his  turkey  !  You  say  to  this  corporation,  we 
can  not  authorize  you  to  discount,  to  emit  paper,  to  regulate  com- 
merce, &c.  No  !  our  book  has  no  precedents  of  that  kind.  But 
then  we  can  authorize  you  to  collect  the  revenue,  and,  while  occu- 
pied with  that,  you  may  do  whatever  else  you  please!" 


14  THE    CURRENCY. 

But  on  the  point  of  constitutionality,  Mr.  Clay  was  not  very 
confident  at  that  time,  and  he  admits  in  1816,  that  "  he  should 
have  voted  for  the  renewal,  had  he  tltcn  foreseen  what  voiv  exists." 
A  total  change  had  come  over  the  monetary  system  of  the  country, 
and  that  state  of  things  which,  in  1811,  did  not  seem  to  INIr.  Clay 
to  make  a  national  bank  "  necessary  and  proper" — such  being  the 
language  of  the  constitution — had,  in  1816,  given  place  to  an  en- 
tirely difFeretit  state  of  things,  as  described  by  Mr.  Clay,  in  the 
above  extracts,  which,  in  his  view,  did  render  such  an  institution 
"  necessary  and  proper"  to  carry  out  the  other  powers  given  to 
Congress  by  the  constitution  ;  or,  as  that  instrument  itself  expresses 
it,  in  two  general  and  comprehensive  powers,  one  as  the  introduc- 
tion to,  and  the  other  as  the  conclusion  of,  certain  and  numerous 
spedjic  powers  :  "  Congress  shall  have  power  to  provide  for  the 
common  defence  and  general  welfare  of  the  United  States,"  and 
"  to  make  all  lavi's  which  shall  be  necessary  and  proper  for 
carrying  into  execution  the  foregoing  powers,  and  all  other  pow- 
ers vested  by  this  constitution  in  the  government  of  the  United 
States."  Of  course,  as  Mr.  Clay  intimates,  the  use  of  "  a  sound 
and  honest  discretion"  is  implied  in  such  language,  and  that  which 
is  "  necessary  may  not  be  perceived  at  one  time,  under  one 
state  of  tilings,  when  it  is  perceived  at  another  time,  under  a  differ- 
ent state  of  things."  In  1811,  the  necessity  of  a  national  bank 
was  not  so  apparent ;  in  1816,  it  was  regarded  by  Mr.  Clay,  and 
those  who  acted  with  him,  as  imperative. 

After  the  country  had  endured  four  years  of  the  worst  currency 
ever  experienced  since  the  adoption  of  the  constitution,  down  to 
the  era  of  the  tarifl'  of  1842,  comprehending  the  interval  between 
the  expiration  of  the  charter  of  the  first  bank  of  the  United  States 
and  the  establishment  of  the  second,  the  republican  or  democratic 
parly,  with  Mr.  Madison  at  their  head,  by  a  strong  and  decided 
expression  of  feeling  and  of  votes — 80  to  71  in  tiie  house,  and  22 
to  12  in  the  senate — against  the  federalists,  who  for  the  most  part 
voted  against  it,  reincorporated  the  bank  for  another  twenty  years. 
It  was  on  this  occasion  that  Mr.  Clay  came  out  as  the  advocate 
of  this  institution,  in  the  manner  and  for  the  reasons  already  ex- 
hibited in  his  own  words.  In  the  same  extracts  is  also  presented 
the  deplorable  state  of  the  currency,  which  led  to  the  adoption  of 
this  measure.  Mr.  Madison,  and  all  the  republicans,  ahas  demo- 
crats, of  that  day,  who  had  felt  scruples  as  to  the  constitutionality 
3f  the  act,  yielded  to  the  necessities  of  the  country,  and  took 


THE    CURRENCY.  15 

shelter  under  authority.  Mr.  Calhoun  brought  in  the  bill,  and 
supported  it.  It  was  a  republican  or  democratic  measure,  and  Mr. 
Clay  was  one  of  the  leaders.  No  other  member,  probably,  had  an 
equal  influence  in  the  house  of  representatives.  His  position  as 
speaker  of  that  body  is  a  sufficient  indication  of  his  social  influence, 
not  to  speak  of  his  previous  history  as  a  statesman. 

As  no  bank,  or  banks,  can  make  money,  or  supply  the  defects 
of  an  inadequate  tariff  by  bringing  money  into  the  country,  it  is  a 
sufficient  praise  of  the  effects  consequent  on  the  reincorporation  of 
the  bank  of  the  United  States,  that  it  immediately  brought  order  out 
of  confusion,  re-established  confidence,  and  helped  the  nation  along, 
till  the  tariff  of  1824  began  to  restore  funds  to  the  country  after  which 
everything  went  on  swimmingly,  till  the  United  States  bank  was 
again  wound  up  in  consequence  of  the  veto  of  President  Jackson. 
The  tariff  of  1842  has  once  more  supplied  funds  for  a  currency, 
and  according  to  the  doctrine  advanced  in  another  chapter,  it  is 
impossible  that  the  means  of  a  currency,  that  is,  money,  should  be 
wanting,  so  long  as  the  tariff  is  adequate  to  prevent  more  money 
going  out  of  the  country  than  comes  in.  Whether  the  currency, 
as  to  its  FORM,  shall  be  supplied  and  regulated  by  state  banks 
alone — it  is  taken  for  granted  that  banks  will  not  be  dispensed  with 
— or  whether  the  federal  government  shall  assert  its  right  and  duty 
to  have  to  do  with  it,  is  a  question  still  open  for  debate.  While 
the  currency  is  good  and  sufficient,  the  mass  of  the  people  will  not 
trouble  themselves  about  this  question  ;  but  statesmen,  who  are 
bound  to  understand  the  complicated  machinery  of  political  econ- 
omy, and  to  look  into  its  profound  secrets,  can  not  repose  without 
concern  on  a  mere  superficial  calm,  that  is  the  effect  of  a  pres- 
ent prosperity  and  abundance.  So  long  as  the  people  are  supplied 
with  a  currency  tliat  answers  all  their  present  purposes,  they  do 
not  inquire,  nor  is  it  possible  for  them  to  know,  whether  it  is  fur- 
nished by  agencies  that  may  be  trusted  to  any  extent ;  whether  the 
system  is  guarded  by  all  the  necessary  checks  and  balances  ;  or 
whether,  for  want  of  a  balance-power,  it  is  rising  and  spreading,  to 
topple  on  its  foundations,  and  finally  to  fall  with  a  crash  that  will 
overwhelm  the  community  with  disaster.  It  is  for  those  who  un- 
derstand the  subject,  for  the  faithful  sentinels  of  the  public,  to  give 
notice  of  any  harm  that  may  be  impending,  and  to  show  the  rea- 
sons why  they  apprehend  it.  That  the  state  authorities,  through 
the  medium  of  state  corporations,  which  are  their  creatures,  ought 
not  to  be  the  sole  agents  to  supply  and  regulate  the  currency  of 


16  THE    CURRENCY. 

the  country,  would  seem  to  be  a  very  credible  proposition.  Every 
one  feels,  on  reading  the  federal  constitution,  that  the  instrument 
intended,  that  the  general  government  should  have  some  hand  in 
this  business,  and  diat  it  is  proper ;  that  it  should  at  least  exert  an 
influence  equal  to  a  balance-power,  to  prevent  the  states  from  erect- 
ing an  overgrown  monetary  system,  to  fall  by  its  own  weight,  and 
from  blowing  up  bubbles,  to  dazzle  by  their  promise,  and  disap- 
point by  bursting. 

A  sage  and  quaint  writer,  after  citing  the  old  adage,  that  experi- 
ence is  the  best  schoolmaster,  gives  this  additional  advice,  that  it 
dotli  charge  high  wages. 

It  appears  by  the  letter  of  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  (House 
Doc.  No.  Ill,  second  session,  Twenty-sixth  Congress),  that  the 
increase  of  banks  from  1S20  to  1830,  was  only  22,  and  the  increase 
of  bank  capital,  for  the  same  period,  only  $8,000,000.  During  this 
time  the  influence  of  the  national  bank,  or  some  other  cause,  kept  the 
unhealthy  growth  of  state  banks  in  check.  But,  behold  the  change  ! 
From  the  same  document,  it  appears  that  the  increase  of  banks,  from 
1830  to  1840,  was  392  (including  branches,  571),  and  that  the  in- 
crease of  banking  capital  for  the  same  period,  was  $213,000,000  ! 
It  also  appears,  that  this  rapid  increase  did  not  begin  till  the  fate 
of  the  national  bank  was  sealed  by  General  Jackson's  veto. 

A  large  portion  of  these  banks  failed,  and  the  capital  vanished, 
as  might  have  been  expected.  The  losses  on  bank  circulation  and 
deposites  amounted  to  $54,000,000,  and  the  losses  on  bank  capital 
to  $248,000,000 — in  all,  to  three  hundred  and  two  millions  of  dol- 
lars !  All  this  by  state  banks.  Not  a  cent  was  ever  lost  by  a  na- 
tional bank.     Verily,  experience  doth  charge  high  wages. 

The  motives  of  President  Jackson,  in  vetoing  thfe  bank  bill  of 
1832,  will  become  more  and  more  apparent,  as  history  opens  the 
plan,  in  the  execution  of  which  he  unsettled  the  commercial  habits 
of  the  nation,  and  brought  about  a  derangement  and  general  break- 
ing up  of  the  currency.  It  was  made  a  subject  of  complaint  by 
the  partisans  of  the  president,  when  the  bill  of  1832  was  brought 
in,  that  it  was  premature.  The  insincerity  of  this  protest  was  in- 
stantly shown  by  Mr.  Clay,  by  calling  attention  to  the  facts,  that 
the  president  himself  had  specially  and  pointedly  invoked  the  ac- 
tion of  Congress  on  the  subject,  in  his  annual  messages  of  1829, 
1830,  and  1831 — that  is,  at  the  opening  of  every  session  of  Con- 
gress, after  his  advent  to  power.  During  the  progress  of  the  bill, 
an  extraordinary  investigation  into  the  administration  of  the  bank. 


THE    CURRENCY.  17 

was  ordered,  with  a  view  to  impair  public  confidence,  but  without 
result.  It  is  singular,  that  each  one  of  the  reasons  assigned  by- 
General  Jackson,  as  objections  to  the  bill,  vanished  upon  scrutiny, 
thereby  indicating,  that  the  real  motives  were  out  of  sight.  He 
expressed  himself,  that  the  precedents  drawn  from  the  history  of 
the  proceedings  of  Congress,  as  to  the  constitutional  power  to  es- 
tablish a  bank,  were  neutralized  by  there  being  two  for  and  two 
against  the  authority;  whereas,  in  the  instance  of  1811,  the  bill 
passed  in  the  house,  and  was  lost  in  the  senate  by  the  casting  vote 
of  the  vice-president;  but  it  was  known,  at  the  same  time,  that  on 
the  constitutional  question,  the  senate  stood  21  in  favor  of  the 
power,  and  that  some  of  the  remaining  13  were  doubtful.  As  to 
the  bill  of  1815,  that  too  was  lost  in  the  house  by  the  casting  vote 
of  the  speaker  (Mr.  Cheves) ;  but  the  objections  that  prevailed 
were  not  constitutional.  They  arose  out  of  the  structure  of  the- 
bill.  Not  one  Congress,  from  the  commencement  of  the  govern- 
ment, had  been  opposed  to  a  bank  on  constitutional  grounds. 

That  foreigners  were  interested  in  the  stock,  was  not  a  reason 
becoming  a  statesman,  who  must  know  that  anybody,  in  any  part 
of  the  world,  might  trade  in  stock  that  is  in  the  market,  as  bank 
stock  always  is;  much  less  did  such  a  reason  become  a  statesman, 
at  the  head  of  a  government,  which  ought  to  take  care,  that  it 
should  not  be  necessary  for  the  stocks  of  the  country  to  go  into 
foreign  markets  to  settle  the  balances  of  trade;  and  still  less  did 
such  a  reason  become  a  statesman,  who  ought  to  know,  that  the 
capital  of  foreigners,  vested  in  the  country,  would  more  naturally 
add  to  its  commercial  and  political  strength,  than  to  its  detriment. 
It  might,  perhaps,  enter  into  the  argument  of  a  demagogue.  The 
same  amount  of  stock,  said  to  be  owned  by  foreigners,  eight  mil- 
lions, would  still  remain  in  the  country  in  some  other  form ;  or,  if 
it  should  be  remitted,  it  would  so  far  cripple  the  currency  and  im- 
poverish the  country. 

That  the  interests  of  the  great  west  required  this  course  of  treat- 
ment, might  have  been  left  for  the  west  to  determine.  The  ques- 
tion was,  whether  they  should  be  called  upon,  unexpectedly,  to 
pay  up  thirty  millions  of  principal,  which  they  owed  the  bank  of 
the  United  States,  and  be  themselves  wound  up  in  bankruptcy;  or 
whether  they  should  be  allowed  to  trade  on,  and  pay  interest  out 
of  the  profits  of  their  business,  which  they  could  afford,  and  which 
was  the  object  of  both  parties  in  the  loans?  But  General  Jackson 
took  upon  himself  to  decide  this  question,  and  wound  them  all  up- 

Vol.  II.— 2 


18  THE    CURRENCY. 

in  bankruptcy,  with  tlie  comforting  assurance,  that  he  thought  their 
interests  required  it! 

General  Jackson's^Hc//c  of  reasons  in  this  veto  message,  was, 
tliat,  if  the  executive  had  been  called  upon  for  the  project  of  a 
bank,  tl)e  duty  would  have  been  cheerfully  performed.  It  is  true, 
this  was  inverting  the  order  of  the  constitution,  and  like  as  in 
France,  under  the  old  regime,  assigning  the  initiative  of  the  laws 
to  the  king,  and  forbidding  that  any  should  be  passed,  except  such 
as  had  been  first  presented  to  the  legislature  by  the  crown.  But, 
so  the  constitution  be  called  into  service,  what  matter,  whether  it  be 
taken  right  or  wrong  end  foremost,  especially  while  it  was  in  such 
safe  hands  as  the  executive?  It  will  appear  by-and-by  what  the 
executive  project  was.  It  is  true  the  constitution  authorizes  the 
president  to  propose  objects  of  legislation ;  but  it  remains  to  be  dis- 
covered, wherein  it  invites  him  to  bring  forward  the  or ga  vie  forms 
of  law. 

The  president,  in  this  veto  message,  spoke  of  "an  investigation 
imwillingbj  conceded  [the  investigation  into  the  administration  of 
the  bank]  and  so  restricted  in  time  as  necessarily  to  make  it  incom- 
plete and  unsatisfactory,  disclosing  enough  to  excite  suspicion  and 
alarm." 

"  Allow  me,  [said  Mr.  Clay]  to  ask  how  the  president  has  ascer- 
tained that  the  investigation  was  imioiUi'ngly  conceded?  I  have 
understood  directly  the  contrary  ;  and  that  the  chairman,  already 
referred  to,  as  well  as  other  members  in  favor  of  the  renewal  of 
the  charter,  promptly  consented  to  and  voted  for  the  investigation. 
And  we  all  know  that  those  in  support  of  the  renewal  could  have 
prevented  the  investigation,  and  that  they  did  not.  But  suspicion 
and  alarm  have  been  excited  !  Suspicion  and  alarm!  Against 
whom  is  this  suspicion?      The  house,  or  the  bank,  or  both? 

"Mr.  President,  I  protest  against  the  right  of  any  chief  magis- 
trate to  come  into  either  house  of  Congress,  and  scrutinize  the  mo- 
tives of  its  members;  to  examine  whether  a  measure  has  been 
passed  with  promptitude  or  repugnance;  and  to  pronounce  upon 
the  willingness  or  unwillingness  with  which  it  has  been  adopted  or 
rejected.  It  is  an  interference  in  concerns  which  partake  of  a  do- 
mestic nature.  The  official  and  constitutional  relations  between 
the  president  and  the  two  houses  of  Congress,  subsist  with  diem  as 
organized  bodies.  His  action  is  confined  to  their  consummated 
proceedings,  and  does  not  extend  to  measures  in  their  incipient 
stages,  during  their  progress  through  the  houses,  nor  to  the  motives 
by  which  they  are  actuated.  There  are  some  parts  of  this  message 
that  ought  to  excite  deep  alarm ;  and  that  especially  in  which  the 
president  aacounces  that  each  public  officer  may  interpret  the  con- 


THE    CURRENCY.  19 

stitution  as  he  pleases.  His  language  is:  'Each  public  officer,  who 
takes  an  oath  to  support  the  constitution,  swears  that  he  will  sup- 
port it  as  he  understands  it,  and  not  as  it  is  understood  by  others. 
*  *  *  The  opinion  of  the  judges  has  no  more  authority  over 
Congress  than  the  opinion  of  Congress  has  over  the  judges;  and 
on  tliat  point  the  j^resident  is  independent  of  both.''  Now,  Mr.  Pres- 
ident, I  conceive,  with  great  deference,  that  the  president  has  mis- 
taken the  purport  of  the  oath  to  support  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States.  No  one  swears  to  support  it  as  he  understands  it, 
but  to  support  it  simply  as  it  is  in  truth.  All  men  are  bound  to 
obey  the  laws,  of  which  the  constitution  is  the  supreme ;  but  must 
they  obey  them  as  they  are,  or  as  they  understand  them9  If  the 
obligation  of  obedience  is  limited  and  controlled  by  the  measure 
of  information;  in  other  words,  if  the  party  is  bound  to  obey  the 
constitution  only  as  he  understands  it,  what  would  be  the  conse- 
quence? The  judge  of  an  inferior  court  would  disobey  the  man- 
date of  a  superior  tribunal,  because  it  was  not  in  conformity  to  the 
constitution,  as  he  vndej'stands  it;  a  custom  house  officer  would 
disobey  a  circular  from  the  treasury  department,  because  contrary 
to  the  constitution,  as  he  tindcrsta?ids  it;  an  American  minister 
would  disregard  an  instruction  from  the  president,  communicated 
through  the  department  of  state,  because  not  agreeable  to  the  con- 
stitution, as  he  understands  it;  and  a  subordinate  officer  in  the 
army  or  navy,  would  violate  the  orders  of  his  superior,  because 
they  were  not  in  accordance  with  the  constitution,  as  he  under- 
stands it.  We  should  have  nothing  settled,  nothing  stable,  nothing 
fixed.  There  would  be  general  disorder  and  confusion  throughout 
every  branch  of  administration,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest  offi- 
cers— universal  nullification.  For  what  is  the  doctrine  of  the 
president  but  that  of  South  Carolina  applied  throughout  the  Union? 
The  president  independent  both  of  Congress  and  the  supreme 
court !  only  bound  to  execute  the  laws  of  the  one  and  the  decis- 
ions of  the  other,  so  far  as  they  conform  to  the  constitution  of 
the  United  States,  as  he  understands  it !  Then  it  should  be  the 
duty  of  every  president,  on  his  installation  into  office,  carefully  to 
examine  all  the  acts  in  the  statute-book,  approved  by  his  predeces- 
sors, and  mark  out  those  which  he  was  resolved  not  to  execute, 
and  to  which  he  meant  to  apply  this  new  species  of  veto,  because 
they  were  repugnant  to  the  constitution  as  he  understands  it.  And, 
after  the  expiration  of  every  term  of  the  supreme  court,  he  should 
send  for  the  record  of  its  decisions,  and  discriminate  between 
those  which  he  would,  and  those  which  he  would  not,  execute, 
because  they  were  or  were  not  agreeable  to  the  constitution,  as  he 
understands  it.''^ 

Mr.  Clay  concluded  his  speech  on  this  occasion,  July  12,  1832, 
with  the  following  melancholy  reflections : — 


20  THE    CURRENCY. 

"Mr.  President,  we  are  about  to  close  one  of  the  longest  and 
most  arduous  sessions  of  Congress  under  the  present  constitution  ; 
and  when  we  return  among  our  constituents,  what  account  of  the 
operations  of  their  government  shall  we  be  bound  to  communicate? 
We  shall  be  compelled  to  say,  that  the  supreme  court  is  paralyzed, 
and  the  missionaries  retained  in  prison  in  contempt  of  its  authority, 
and  in  defiance  of  numerous  treaties  and  laws  of  the  United  States ; 
that  the  executive,  through  the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  sent  to 
Congress  a  tariff  bill  which  would  have  destroyed  numerous  branches 
of  our  domestic  industry,  and  tending  to  the  final  destruction  of 
all;  that  the  veto  has  been  applied  to  the  bank  of  the  United 
States,  our  only  reliance  for  a  sound  and  uniform  currency;  that 
the  senate  has  been  violently  attacked  for  the  exercise  of  a  clear 
constitutional  power ;  that  the  house  of  representatives  have  been 
imnecessarily  assailed ;  and  that  the  president  has  promulgated  a 
rule  of  action  for  those  who  have  taken  the  oath  to  support  the 
constitution  of  the  United  States,  that  must,  if  there  be  practical 
conformity  to  it,  introduce  general  nullification,  and  end  in  the  ab- 
solute subversion  of  the  government." 

It  has  been  suggested,  that  the  baseless  reasons  assigned  in  the 
veto  message  on  the  bank  bill  of  1832,  for  the  renewal  of  the  char- 
ter of  that  institution,  argued  motives  out  of  sight.  It  is  the 
province  of  history  to  inquire  into  the  motives  of  men  who  have 
been  prominent  and  leading  agents  in  great  events,  and  in  the  ac- 
complishment of  momentous  results ;  and  it  is  a  recognised  rule 
of  evidence,  common  and  judicial,  that  motives  are  to  be  inferred 
from  conduct.  Errors  may  result  from  the  appUcation  of  this  rule, 
and  it  ought  doubtless  to.  be  used  with  caution  and  allowance. 
But  it  is  neither  required,  nor  possible,  to  dispense  with  it. 

The  war  of  General  Jackson  on  the  currency  system  of  the 
United  States,  such  as  he  found  it  when  he  came  into  power,  and 
the  disastrous  results  which  flowed  from  it,  in  connexion  with 
the  history  of  the  attempt  to  establish  an  independent  or  sub-treas- 
ury, demand  the  most  thorough  and  rigid  scrutiny,  not  less  for  the 
future  use  of  statesmen,  than  for  the  well-being  of  the  republic.  It 
was  an  aim  at  a  fundamental,  complete,  and  radical  revolution 
in  the  commercial  habits  of  the  people,  without  consulting  them. 
It  was,  indeed,  never  accomplished,  for  that  was  impossible. 
Nothing  but  a  miracle  could  do  it.  Changes  were  forced  upon 
the  community ;  society  was  convulsed  to  its  foundations ;  the 
great  mass  was  upheaved  as  by  the  throes  of  an  earthquake  ;  stee- 
ples toppled  on  their  bases ;  fearful  chasms  yawned  in  sight  of  the 
terror-stricken   multitude  ;  a  continent  was  rocked  ;  millions  were 


THE    CURRENCY.  21 

destroyed  ;  and  a  nation  was  scarcely  saved.  Nevertheless,  the 
revolution  contemplated,  was  not  effected.     That  can  never  be. 

Some,  no  doubt,  will  be  surprised,  when  the  history  of  motives 
in  these  transactions,  is  unveiled.  The  evidence  in  the  case,  as 
in  all  such  cases,  is  that  of  probability — presumption — arising  from 
certain  known  facts.  Men,  devoted  to  an  object  which  they  dare 
not  promulge,  do  not  wear  the  announcement  of  their  purposes, 
written  on  their  foreheads. 

In  the  first  place,  it  will  not  be  denied,  that  Andrew  Jackson 
was  a  man  of  iron  will — disposed  to  have  his  own  way — pro- 
pense  to  despotism.  Friends  and  enemies  agree  in  this.  It  is 
marked  indelibly  on  the  history  of  his  life.  He  cherished  none 
who  would  not  minister  to  this  appetite,  and  acknowledge  him  as 
chief.  Servility  was  the  homage  he  demanded — not  acquiescence. 
There  was  no  independence  of  judgment,  within  the  sphere  of  his 
influence,  on  questions  which  belonged  to  him,  or  which  he  thought 
proper  to  take  in  hand.     He  wanted  tools — not  a  master. 

It  will  also  probably  be  admitted,  that  Martin  Van  Buren  had 
more  influence  with  General  Jackson,  during  his  [the  general's] 
administration,  than  any  other  man.  It  is  then  pertinent  to  the 
purpose  now  in  view,  to  call  attention  to  a  somewhat  remarkable 
chapter  of  political  history  in  the  state  of  New  York. 

It  was  very  naturally  expected,  when  Mr.  Van  Buren  and  his  par- 
ty rose  to  power  in  the  state  of  New  York,  1829,  that,  having  been 
the  denouncers  of  banks,  they  would  rather  abridge  the  system, 
than  enlarge  it.  After  the  governor's  [Mr.  Van  Buren's]  message 
had  recommended  to  the  legislature  Judge  Forman's  plan  of  bank- 
ing, and  that  plan  was  reported  on,  the  public  were  somewhat 
surprised  to  find  in  the  report  of  the  bank  committee  the  following 
language : — 

"  The  system  of  paper  credit  has  now  become  indispensable  to 
all  commercial  countries.  It  is  the  most  powerful  agent  known  to 
the  world  in  generating  the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  a  nation.  In 
great  exigencies,  it,  by  its  timely  assistance,  often  delivers  govern- 
ments from  embarrassments  and  danger."  Again  :  "  A  paper  cir- 
culation as  to  all  objects  of  commerce,  is  a  positive  increase  of 
capital."  Again:  "  Banks  in  this  country  have  been  productive 
of  the  greatest  advantages." 

The  plan  of  banking,  heralded  by  this  favorable  report,  was  the 
safety-fund  system — a  somewhat  captivating  name,  though  not, 
perhaps,  when  thoroughly  sifted,  quite  so  safe  as  was  originally 


22  THE    CURRENCY.  • 

promised.  For  example,  in  1834,  when  the  liahiHties  of  the 
safety-fund  banks  of  New  York,  exclusive  of  capital  stock,  were 
$34,000,000,  the  safety  fund,  alias  the  security,  was  only  $289,000  ; 
and  for  several  years  that  fund  has  been  in  a  minus  quantity. 
That  inode  of  security  is  not  otherwise  a  positive  vice,  than  as  be- 
ing deceptive.  It  is  good  for  what  it  amounts  to,  and  may  answer 
tolerably  in  prosperous  times  ;  but,  in  a  hard  trial  of  a  banking 
system,  or  in  a  general  crash,  as  has  sometimes  happened,  it  is 
good  for  nothing.  But  it  was  blown  into  favor  on  the  advent  of 
Mr.  Van  Buren,  as  governor  of  New  York ;  and  in  six  years  after 
the  system  was  established,  sixty-six  banks  were  chartered  on 
this  basis  !  The  previous  number  of  the  banks  in  the  state,  was 
nominally  forty ;  several  of  which,  however,  were  broken  and  un- 
sound. These  forty  banks  were  a  half  century  coming  into  exist- 
ence, and  did  not  average  one  a  year ;  whereas,  the  Van  Buren 
administration  the  first  year  renewed  the  charters  of  sixteen  old 
banks,  and  created  twelve  new  ones!  Ten  more  were  created 
the  next  session  of  the  legislature  ;  ten  again  the  next  thereafter  ; 
AND  so  ON  !     This,  for  an  anti-bank  party,  was  doing  business. 

But  the  secret  is  not  told.  It  had  been  customary  to  require  a 
bonus  to  the  state,  of  a  new  bank,  and  for  new  charters  ;  but  Mr. 
Van  Buren,  in  his  message  of  1829,  recommended,  that  thereafter 
no  bonus  should  be  required.  The  average  premium  arising  from 
the  advance  of  stock  above  par,  was  ten  per  cent.,  which  on  a 
capital  of  $12,850,000 — that  being  the  whole  capital  of  these 
new  banks — amounted  to  $1,285,000.  The  way  this  bonus  of 
$1,285,000,  was  disposed  of,  may  be  accounted  for  by  a  consid- 
eration of  Mr,  Stephen  Allen's  project  of  a  Tammany  bank,  in 
1832,  which  he  calculated  would  yield  the  Tammany  society 
$19,000,  without  a  penny's  investment;  and  by  the  following  evi- 
dence given  in  the  New  York  circuit  court,  July  6,  1827,  by 
Joseph  D.  Beers,  a  celebrated  broker,  on  the  trial  of  Jacob 
Barker : — 

"  '  Did  you  ever  sell  stock  on  contract,  and  sell  it  without  own- 
ing itV' — 'Yes,  frequently.' — 'To  what  amount?' — 'Not  very 
large  at  any  onetime.' — 'Do  others  do  it?' — 'Yes.' — 'Is  it  a 
common  practice  among  brokers  and  stock-dealers  ?' — '  It  is  : 
sometimes  to  large  amounts.' — '  Say  three  or  four  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars?' — '  Yes.' — '  Whether  the  amount  be  large  or  small, 
is  it  like  other  business,  only  the  difference  between  a  wholesale 
and  retail  dealer  V — '  That  is  all.' — '  Are  not  such  contracts  en- 
tirely regulated  by  the  prospect  of  profit  ?' — '  I  make  no  other  cal- 


THE    CURRENCY.  23 

culation,  than  whether  or  not  I  can  fulfil  to  advantage.' — '  Is  it  not 
very  common  to  settle  such  contracts  by  paying  or  receiving  the 
difference  without  there  being  any  stock  received  or  delivered  ?' 
— '  It  is  very  common  to  settle  in  that  way.'  " 

It  is  unnecessary  to  say,  that  it  was  perfectly  easy,  in  the  way 
suggested  by  Mr.  Allen's  project  for  a  Tammany  bank,  and  by  Mr. 
Beers'  evidence,  as  above,  to  distribute  this  bonus  of  $1,285,000 
among  political  associates,  and  for  political  objects,  in  the  state  of 
New  York,  and  that  all  the  business  might  be  done  on  change,  with 
no  other  use  of  money  than  for  the  nominal  and  privileged  holders  of 
the  stock  to  pocket  the  difference  between  par  and  ten  per  cent, 
above  par ;  and  they  must  have  been  more  simple  than  some  re- 
cent developments  indicate,  if  they  did  not  embrace  the  opportu- 
nity. As  Mr.  Allen  said,  when  he  proposed  to  establish  a  Tam- 
many bank  of  half  a  million,  "  my  opinion,  you  no  doubt  know, 
is  in  opposition  to  these  banking  monopolies  ;"  so  it  was  well 
known,  that  Mr.  Van  Buren's  opinion  ran  the  same  way,  when, 
in  1829,  he  started  afresh  the  manufacture  of  banks  in  the  state  of 
New  York,  turning  out  a  batch  of  twenty-eight  the  first  year,  and  an 
average  of  ten  a  year  thereafter,  till  he  and  his  party  obtained  a 
very  handsome  bonus  as  above,  for  their  political  objects — the 
bonus,  by  recommendation  of  the  governor,  as  before  seen,  being 
kept  back  from  the  state,  and  applied  to  what  were  doubtless  regard- 
ed, by  those  who  used  it,  more  important  and  more  worthy  objects. 
Probably  the  reason  why  Mr.  Allen's  project  of  a  Tammany  bank 
did  not  prevail,  was,  that  it  would  be  drawing  aside  the  veil  too 
much,  whereby  all  the  rest  would  chance  to  be  seen.  Besides,  in 
that  case,  the  mouth  of  Tammany  would  have  been  shut. 

There  is  another  material  fact,  as  reported  and  believed,  worthy 
of  notice  in  this  place,  in  the  history  of  the  New  York  state  banks, 
to  wit,  that  contemporaneously  with  the  events  above  noticed,  the 
old  banks  found  themselves  annoyed  by  unexpected  runs  upon 
them  for  specie,  and  that  while  laboring  under  these  inconveniences, 
hints  were  passed  to  them,  that,  by  appointing  such  and  such 
directors,  thev  would  be  relieved.  The  new  banks  were  of  course 
all  furnished  with  suitable  directors.  In  this  way,  it  is  averred, 
that  the  whole  banking  system  of  the  state  of  New  York,  from  one 
of  the  bank  parlors  of  Albany,  was  brought  under  the  sway  of  the 
dominant  political  party,  and  forced  to  minister  to  their  occasions. 

It  can  aot  be  denied,  that,  of  all  men  in  the  world,  they  who 
had  accomplished  such    an  achievement,  were    best  qualified  to 


24  THE    CURRENCY.  • 

know  the  power  of  banks  as  political  engines,  and  to  declaim 
against  them  when  it  should  answer  their  purpose,  as  an  enormity 
in  the  social  state.  Who  was  better  qualified  than  Mr.  Van  Bu- 
ren,  when  transferred  to  the  state  department  at  Washington,  to 
give  advice  to  the  president  of  the  United  States  on  this  subject  ? 
"  Do  you  not  see,  sir,  how  admirably  this  system  works  in  the 
state  of  New  York  ?  We  govern  the  state  by  the  banking  system 
there,  and  force  the  banks  (alias,  the  people)  to  pay  all  the  costs  of 
our  party  in  maintaining  our  ascendency.  You  have  only  to  adopt 
the  same  system  with  the  bank  of  the  United  States,  get  such  di- 
rectors and  presidents  of  the  branches  as  are  most  suitable,  and 
gradually  bring  the  parent  institution  under  the  same  discipline, 
and  the  politics  of  the  nation  will  ever  afterward  be  at  command." 

There  is  no  positive  evidence,  that  such  counsel  was  ever  given, 
or  adopted,  with  such  a  view.  But  it  would  be  singular,  if  it  were 
not  thought  of,  and  more  strange,  considering  what  is  known  of 
the  parties,  and  of  the  contemporaneous  history  of  banking  in  the 
state  of  New  York,  if  such  a  plan  were  not  actually  agreed  upon. 
The  very  thing  that  would  be  expected  to  follow,  came  to  pass. 
In  1829,  General  Jackson  undertook  to  remove  and  appoint  offi- 
cers of  the  bank  of  the  United  States,  and  began  with  Jeremiah 
Mason,  president  of  the  branch  bank  of  Portsmouth,  New  Hamp- 
shire. It  appears,  however,  the  aim  being  apparent,  that  there 
was  too  much  probity,  even  in  the  bank  of  the  United  States,  to 
consent  to  be  made  subservient  to  the  political  designs  of  a  party 
in  power,  and  the  movement  was  resisted  and  thwarted  on  the 
threshold.  Better,  perhaps,  for  the  bank,  if  it  had  yielded  ;  but 
it  did  not  yield,  and  its  doom  was  sealed  from  that  hour. 

They  who  choose  to  ascribe  to  General  Jackson  patriotic  mo- 
tives in  falling  in  with  this  supposed  project,  are  at  liberty  to  do 
so  ;  but  none,  who  understand  his  character,  will  deny  that  he  de- 
sired and  aimed  to  have  everything  under  his  control  ;  and  what 
more  important  to  an  ambitious  chief  of  the  nation,  than  to  get  the 
bank  of  the  United  States  under  his  thumb  ?  Was  it  morally 
possible  for  a  man  of  General  Jackson's  known  temperament,  to 
be  contented,  till  he  had  accomplished  that  object,  if  he  had  once 
conceived  it?  And  what  shall  be  deemed  evidence  that  he  ever 
undertook  it  ?  Precisely  that  species  of  conduct  which  is  alleged 
to  have  been  practised  in  the  state  of  New  York,  for  the  attainment 
of  a  kindred  object,  and  which  is  believed  to  have  been  so  suc- 
cessful ;  and  that  evidence  is  furnished. 


THE    CURRENCY.  26 

Mr.  Clay,  in  his  speech  on  the  sub-treasury  scheme,  of  Febru- 
ary 10,  1838,  has  noticed  this  event  as  follows : — 

'*  I  have  heard  his  [General  Jackson's]  hostility  to  banks,  as- 
cribed to  some  collision  which  he  had  with  one  of  them,  during 
the  late  war,  at  the  city  of  New  Orleans  :  and  it  is  possible  that 
may  have  had  some  influence  upon  his  mind.  The  immediate 
cause,  more  probably,  was  the  refusal  of  that  perverse  and  unac- 
commodating gentleman,  Nick  Biddle,  to  turn  out  of  the  office  of 
president  of  the  New  Hampshire  branch  of  the  bank  of  the  United 
States,  at  the  instance  of  his  excellency  Isaac  Hill,  in  the  summer 
of  1829,  that  giant-like  person,  Jeremiah  Mason— giant  in  body, 
and  giant  in  mind.  War  and  strife,  endless  war  and  strife,  per- 
sonal or  national,  foreign  or  domestic,  were  the  aliment  of  the  late 
president's  existence.  War  against  the  bank,  war  against  France, 
and  strife  and  contention  with  a  countless  number  of  individuals. 
The  wars  with  Black  Hawk  and  the  Seminoles  were  scarcely  a 
luncheon  for  his  voracious  appetite.  And  he  made  his  exit  from 
public  life,  denouncing  war  and  vengeance  against  Mexico  and  the 
state  banks." 

It  is  charitable  to  suppose,  that  General  Jackson  had  not  the 
remotest  conception  of  the  tremendous  calamities  he  was  preparing 
for  the  country,  in  the  vengeance  he  resolved  on  against  the  bank 
of  the  United  States,  for  this  heinous  disregard  of  his  will.  No 
one  will  probably  ever  accuse  him  of  having  been  endowed  with 
such  perspicacity.  It  is  the  consequences  which  this  vengeance 
led  to,  and  not  the  destruction  of  the  bank,  that  is  so  much  to  be 
deplored.  The  latter  was  a  trifle,  and  scarcely  worthy  of  notice. 
With  an  adequate  protective  policy,  the  country  can  possibly  do 
without  a  national  bank.  It  can  at  least  try.  If  the  state  banks 
can  be  kept  within  safe  bounds,  without  a  national  institution  to 
act  as  a  balance-power  in  checking  their  excesses,  a  national  bank 
is  not  essential.  But,  it  was  war  on  the  currency  system  of  the 
whole  country,  and  on  its  protective  policy,  which  followed  in  the 
train  of  this  war  against  the  bank  of  the  United  States,  and  brought 
disasters  incalculable,  and  almost  without  end,  upon  the  nation. 
It  was  the  great  plan  immediately  formed,  after  this  disappointment, 
to  revolutionize  the  entire  monetary  and  commercial  system  of  the 
United  States,  in  the  establishment  of  a  government  bank,  un- 
der the  guise  of  an  independent  treasury,  which  brought 
desolation  and  wo  upon  the  land.  That  iron  will  could  never 
bend — must  rule.     Since  it  could  not  bring  the  bank  of  the 


2G  THE    CURRENCY. 

United  States  under  its  control,   it  resolved  to  remove  all  other 
banks  out  of  the  way,  and  have  one  of  its  own. 

It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  the  plan  of  the  subtreasury 
was  not  matured,  till  that  of  establishing  a  new  national  bank  in 
the  city  of  New  York,  under  the  control  of  the  partisans  of  the 
administration — who,  on  the  principle  of  the  New  York  state  sys- 
tem, before  noticed,  expected  to  realize  at  least  a  two-million  bo- 
nus, for  private  and  political  objects — had  failed.  The  evidences 
of  this  plan  are  so  abundant  and  notorious,  as  not  to  require  speci- 
fication. 

From  the  time  when  this  fatal  resolution  of  war  on  the  currency 
began  to  take  effect  on  the  great  interests  of  the  country,  till  the 
people  came  to  the  rescue  in  1S40,  the  history  of  the  republic  is 
one  of  uninterrupted,  wide-spread,  overwhelming  calamity.  This, 
and  the  war  on  the  protective  policy,  and  on  all  the  commercial 
habits  of  the  nation,  was  one  of  plan  and  of  time.  A  great  and 
strong  people,  in  the  full  tide  of  prosperity,  can  not  be  easily  bro- 
ken down  by  measures  of  government,  however  hostile  to  their  in- 
terests, however  destructive  in  their  tendency.  "  He  [General 
Jackson]  killed  off  the  institutions  of  the  country  in  detail,"  says 
the  Hon.  John  M.  Clayton,  "  always  selecting  the  weakest  first, 
destroying  that  with  the  aid  of  the  friends  of  the  others,  before  he 
ventured  to  announce  any  hostility  to  the  latter,  and  never  attack- 
ing the  strongest,  until  the  friends  of  the  weaker  measures,  which 
had  been  victimized,  became  pow'erless.  His  first  attack  was 
upon  the  internal  improvement  system.  The  bank's  turn  came 
next.     Within  six  months  after  that,  he  made  war  on  the  tariff." 

These  demonstrations,  by  the  alarm  which  they  excited,  began 
immediately  to  affect  the  country,  though  they  did  not  so  soon 
reach  the  great  body  of  the  people.  The  impetus  of  public  pros- 
perity, which  the  tariff  of  1S24  had  imparted  to  the  nation,  could 
not  be  instantly  arrested.  It  was  a  great  and  mighty  volume  of 
the  business  and  trade  of  a  great  people,  I'olling  up  wealth  in  heaps 
and  mountains,  and  it  was  not  till  nearly  the  close  of  General 
Jackson's  administration,  that  the  effects  of  his  destructive  meas- 
ures began  to  be  seriously  felt.  The  veto  of  the  bank  bill,  in 
1S32,  was  a  shock  under  which  the  whole  nation  staggered;  but 
it  was  then  too  strong  to  fall.  The  removal  of  the  public  depos- 
ites,  in  October,  1S33,  in  the  face  of  a  resolution  of  Congress 
intended  as  a  damper  for  the  half-revealed  purpose,  and  against 
the  remonstrances  of  his  own  party,  stunned  the  public  mind,  like 


THE    CURRENCY.  27 

the  effect  of  the  first  blow  on  the  head  of  a  bullock  that  is  doomed 
to  the  slaughter.  It  also  produced  great  and  extensive  distress. 
It  was  on  the  occasion  of  introducing  a  resolution  in  the  senate  to 
rebuke  this  extraordinary  assumption  of  power,  that  Mr.  Clay  said  : 
"  We  are  in  the  midst  of  a  revolution!"  Petitions  from  all 
parts  of  the  country  poured  into  Congress,  praying  for  relief.  But 
General  Jackson  had  taken  the  people  captive,  was  in  the  zenith 
of  his  power,  and  his  iron  will,  still  bent  on  the  execution  of  his 
fell  purposes,  knew  no  sympathy  for  a  suffering  public.  He  had 
been  thwarted.  He  must  be  revenged.  It  has  been  charitably 
allowed,  that  he  was  not  aware  of  the  devastation  he  was  bringing 
upon  the  country,  not  being  able,  from  want  of  skill  as  a  states- 
man, to  foresee  the  effects  of  his  own  measures. 

The  next  great  error,  planned  in  equal  ignorance  of  its  unavoid- 
able result,  but  designed  to  atone  for  the  public  dissatisfaction  so 
extensively  expressed,  was  a  bait  thrown  out  to  the  people  and  the 
states,  in  the  double  form  of  loaning  the  public  deposites  to  private 
enterprise,  and  recommending  the  bestowment  of  the  surplus 
funds  of  the  national  treasury  on  the  states,  for  their  use  and  bene- 
fit. The  seductive  influence  of  this  temptation  to  all  these  parties, 
was  unfortunately  but  too  effective.  The  people  launched  forth 
into  the  wildest  schemes  of  speculation  ;  importers  flooded  the 
country  with  foreign  goods  ;  states,  in  anticipation  of  the  surplus 
funds,  projected  internal  improvements  on  the  largest  scale,  sent 
their  bonds  to  the  European  market,  the  proceeds  of  which  were 
remitted  in  goods,  and  the  funds  for  home  consumption  were  drawn 
from  banks  of  home  manufacture,  which,  by  scores  and  hundreds, 
under  the  same  stimulus,  had  sprung  into  existence,  without  capi- 
tal ;  the  whole  face  of  the  country  was  checkered  with  new  and 
weW-mappcd  towns  and  cities  ;  property  everywhere  rose  to  an  un- 
natural price  ;  extravagance,  in  all  conditions  of  life,  was  the  order 
of  the  day  ;  and  the  nation  ran  mad  with  the  idea,  that  all  this  was 
substantial,  and  could  never  end.  It  need  not  now  be  said,  that 
it  was  all  forced.  It  is  equally  unnecessary  to  say — for  all  will  see 
it — that  this  state  of  things  was  produced  by  unsetding  the  old 
commercial  habits  of  the  people,  by  destroying  the  old  system  of 
currency,  and  introducing  a  new  and  fictitious  one,  and  by  capti- 
vating the  nation  with  bubbles  of  credit,  doomed  to  burst. 

When  the  people  and  states  were  wrought  up  to  this  intense 
pitch  of  excitement  and  expectation,  and  more  than  twenty  millions 
a  year  were  flowing  into  the  national  treasury  from  the  sales  of  the 


28  THE    CURRENCY. 

public  lands,  and  at  the  very  moment  when,  in  consequence  of 
these  stimulants  administered  by  the  seductive  measures  of  the 
government,  a  balance  of  sixty  millions  in  foreign  parts  had  ac- 
cumulated against  the  importing  cities,  the  people  were  thunder- 
struck with  an  order  from  the  treasury,  the  effect  of  which  was  to 
remove  the  specie  from  the  Atlantic  border,  where  it  was  most 
wanted,  to  the  far  west,  where  it  was  not  wanted.  The  nation 
WAS  RUINED  !  Even  without  this  order,  it  would  have  been  diffi- 
cult for  the  people  to  stand  up,  after  such  a  season  of  intoxication. 
When  it  came,  they  were  prostrate.  The  work  of  destruction, 
which  began  with  the  veto  of  the  bank  bill,  in  1832,  was  consum- 
mated by  the  specie  circular  of  1836.  There  was  no  more  to  be 
done,  no  more  to  be  hoped  for,  till  the  nation,  come  to  its  sensfes, 
should  rise,  and  save  itself,  as  it  attempted,  and  partially  accom- 
plished, in  1840.  What  patriot,  what  man,  that  lived  through 
that  fearful  period,  to  know  what  it  was,  by  some  taste  of  its  ca- 
lamities, can  look  back  upon  it,  without  shuddering  at  the  perils 
through  which  the  country  was  doomed  to  pass  ? 


THK    SUB-TREASURY.  29 


CHAPTER  n. 

THE    CURRENCY. 

Mr.  Van  Buren's  Accession. — The  Extra  Session  of  1837. — The  Sub-Treasury. — 
Its  Failure  at  the  Extra  Session. — Subsequent  Debate  on  the  Message. — Mr. 
Clay's  Views  of  it. — His  Examination  of  the  Gradual  Opening  of  General 
Jackson's  Scheme  of  a  Government  Bank. — Mr.  Clay's  Argument  in  1838,  and 
his  Waraing  on  the  Passage  of  the  Bill  in  1840. — Mr.  Van  Buren's  Servility 
proves  his  Destruction. — Capital  and  Labor. — The  Philosophy  of  Currency. 

Mr.  Van  Buren  came  into  power,  in  1837,  to  "  tread  in  the 
footsteps  of  his  illustrious  predecessor."  In  less  than  three 
months  after  his  accession,  the  banks,  unable  to  hold  out  any 
longer,  suspended.  The  work  of  destruction  was  now  complete. 
All  that  had  been  resolved  on,  was  accomplished,  with  one  excep- 
tion. The  bank  of  the  United  States  was  destroyed,  and  all  the 
banks  of  the  country  were  under  the  feet  of  the  president.  The 
currency  was  destroyed,  the  protective  policy  was  crippled,  man- 
ufactures drooped  and  the  establishments  were  tumbling  in  ruins, 
every  species  of  property  had  depreciated  to  a  mere  nominal  value, 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  who  had  supposed  themselves 
rich,  found  themselves  bankrupts,  and  sheriffs  and  their  deputies 
were  almost  the  only  vocations  worth  pursuing.  The  spirit  of  the 
people  was  broken,  and  now  was  the  time  to  fasten  upon  them 
that  great  project,  which  General  Jackson  conceived  soon  after  he 
first  quarrelled  with  the  bank  of  the  United  States,  to  which  all 
the  measures  of  his  administration  looked  and  tended,  and  which 
was  his  undeviating  aim,  during  the  tremendous  ordeal  through 
which  he  had  hurried  the  nation,  to  precipitate  the  final  result. 

All  things  being  judged  to  be  right  for  the  measure,  Mr.  Van 
Buren  called  a  special  session  of  Congress  in  the  autumn  of 
1837,  and  brought  before  them  the  scheme  for  an  independent 
TREASURY,  as  he  and  his  party  denominated  it,  indicating  the  ab- 
straction of  DIVORCE  OF  BANK  AND  STATE.  The  Opponents  of 
the  scheme  have  been  accustomed  to  call  it  the  sub-treasury. 


30  THE    SUB-TREASURY. 

The  project,  however,  was  destined  to  encounter  more  formidable 
difficuhies,  than  had  been  anticipated.  The  mandate  of  the  chief- 
tain had  less  force  from  the  Hermitage,  than  from  the  chair  of 
state.  Though  the  will  of  his  successor  did  not  lack  in  obse- 
quious fidelity,  he  could  not  roar  like  the  lion  himself.  He  was 
accused  of  being  related  to  another  species  of  the  quadruped  race, 
more  cunning,  and  less  generous.  The  bill  failed,  and  Congress 
adjourned  without  result. 

In  the  opening  of  Mr.  Clay's  speech  on  this  occasion,  Septem- 
ber 25,  1837,  he  said  :— 

"  No  period  has  ever  existed  in  this  country,  in  which  the  fu- 
ture was  covered  by  a  darker,  denser,  or  more  impenetrable  gloom. 
None,  in  which  the  duty  was  more  imperative  to  discard  all  pas- 
sion and  prejudice,  all  party  ties,  and  previous  bias,  and  look  ex- 
clusively to  the  good  of  our  afflicted  country.  In  one  respect, 
and  I  think  it  a  fortunate  one,  our  present  difficulties  are  distin- 
guishable from  former  domestic  trouble,  and  that  is  their  univer- 
sality. They  are  felt,  it  is  true,  in  different  degrees,  but  they 
reach  every  section,  every  state,  every  interest,  almost  every  man 
in  the  Union.  All  feel,  see,  hear,  know  their  existence.  As  they 
do  not  array,  like  our  former  divisions,  one  portion  of  the  confed- 
eracy against  another,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  common  sufferings 
may  lead  to  common  sympathies  and  common  counsels,  and  that 
we  shall,  at  no  distant  day,  be  able  to  see  a  clear  way  of  deliv- 
erance. If  the  present  state  of  the  country  were  produced  by  the 
fault  of  the  people  ;  if  it  proceeded  from  their  wasteful  extrava- 
gance, and  their  indulgence  of  a  reckless  spirit  of  ruinous  specu- 
lation ;  if  public  measures  had  no  agency  whatever  in  bringing  it 
about ;  it  would,  nevertheless,  be  the  duty  of  government  to  exert 
all  its  energies,  and  to  employ  all  its  legitimate  powers,  to  devise 
an  efTicacious  remedy.  But  if  our  present  deplorable  condition 
has  sprung  from  our  rulers  ;  if  it  is  to  be  clearly  traced  to  their 
acts  and  operations,  that  duty  becomes  infinitely  more  obligatory  ; 
and  government  would  be  faithless  to  tlie  highest  and  most  solemn 
of  human  trusts  should  it  neglect  to  perform  it.  And  is  it  not  too 
true,  that  the  evils  which  surround  us  are  to  be  ascribed  to  those 
who  have  had  the  conduct  of  our  public  affairs? 

"  In  glancing  at  the  past,  nothing  can  be  further  from  my  inten- 
tion than  to  excite  angry  feelings,  or  to  find  grounds  of  reproach. 
It  would  be  far  more  congenial  to  my  wishes,  that,  on  this  occa- 
sion, we  should  forget  all  former  unhappy  divisions  and  animos- 
ities. But  in  order  to  discover  how  to  get  out  of  our  difficulties, 
we  must  ascertain,  if  we  can,  how  we  got  into  them. 

"  Prior  to  that  series  of  unfortunate  measures  which  had  for  its 
object  the  overthrow  of  the  bank  of  the  United  States,  and  the 


THE    SUB-TREASURY.  31 

discontinuance  of  its  fiscal  agency  for  the  government,  no  people 
upon  earth  ever  enjoyed  a  better  currency,  or  had  exchanges  bet- 
ter regulated,  than  the  people  of  the  United  States.  Our  mone- 
tary system  appeared  to  have  attained  as  great  perfection  as  any- 
thing human  can  possibly  reach.  The  combination  of  United 
States  and  local  banks  presented  a  true  image  of  our  system  of 
general  and  state  governments,  and  worked  quite  as  well.  Not 
only  within  the  country  had  we  a  local  and  general  currency  per- 
fectly sound,  but  in  whatever  quarter  of  the  globe  American  com- 
merce had  penetrated,  there  also  did  the  bills  of  the  United  States 
bank  command  unbounded  credit  and  confidence.  Now  we  are 
in  danger  of  having  fixed  upon  us,  indefinitely  as  to  time,  that 
medium,  an  irredeemable  paper  currency,  which,  by  the  univer- 
sal consent  of  the  commercial  world,  is  regarded  as  the  worst. 
How  has  this  reverse  come  upon  us?  Can  it  be  doubted  that  it 
is  the  result  of  those  measures  to  which  I  have  adverted  ?  When, 
at  the  very  moment  of  adopting  them,  the  very  consequences 
which  have  happened  were  foretold  as  inevitable,  is  it  necessary 
to  look  elsewhere  for  their  cause  ?  Never  was  prediction  more 
distinctly  made  ;  never  was  fulfilment  more  literal  and  exact. 

"  Let  us  suppose  that  those  measures  had  not  been  adopted ; 
that  the  bank  of  the  United  States  had  been  rechartered  ;  that  the 
public  deposites  had  remained  undisturbed  ;  and  that  the  treasury 
order  had  never  issued  ;  is  there  not  every  reason  to  believe  that 
we  should  be  now  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  sound  currency  ;  that  the 
public  deposites  would  be  now  safe  and  forthcoming,  and  that  the 
suspension  of  specie  payments  in  May  last,  would  not  have  hap- 
pened ■? 

"  The  president's  message  asserts  that  the  suspension  has  pro- 
ceeded from  over-action,  over-trading,  the  indulgence  of  a  spirit 
of  speculation,  produced  by  bank  and  other  facihties.  I  think 
this  is  a  view  of  the  case  entirely  too  superficial.  It  would  be 
quite  as  correct  and  just,  in  the  instance  of  a  homicide  perpetrated 
by  the  discharge  of  a  gun,  to  allege  that  the  leaden  ball,  and  not 
the  man  who  levelled  the  piece,  was  responsible  for  the  murder. 
The  true  inquiry  is,  how  came  that  excessive  over-trading,  and 
those  extensive  bank  facilities,  which  the  message  describes  ? 
Were  they  not  the  necessary  and  immediate  consequences  of  the 
overthrow  of  the  bank,  and  the  removal  from  its  custody  of  the 
public  deposites  ?  And  is  not  this  proved  by  the  vast  multiplica- 
tion of  banks,  the  increase  of  the  line  of  their  discounts  and  ac- 
commodations, prompted  and  stimulated  by  Secretary  Taney,  and 
the  great  augmentation  of  their  circulation  which  ensued  ?" 

After  exposing  other  unsound  reasonings  of  the  message, 
especially  the  incorrect  statement,  that  similar  difficulties  had  oc- 
curred in  Great  Britain  and  Europe  from  the  same  causes — which 


32  THE    SUB-TREASURY. 

was  not  a  fact — Mr.  Clay  proceeds  to  a  specification  of  what  he 
regards  as  the  true  causes : — 

"  Since  the  intensity  of  suffering,  and  the  disastrous  state  of 
things  in  this  country,  have  far  transcended  anything  that  has  oc- 
curred in  Europe,  we  must  look  here  for  some  peculiar  and  more 
potent  causes  than  any  which  have  been  in  operation  there.  They 
are  to  be  found  in  that  series  of  measures  to  which  I  have  already 
adverted : — 

First,  the  veto  of  the  bank  ; 

Second,  the  removal  of  the  deposites,  with  the  urgent  injunc- 
tion of  Secretary  Taney  upon  the  banks  to  enlarge  their  accom- 
modations ; 

Third,  the  gold  bill,  and  the  demand  of  gold  for  the  foreign 
indemnities  ; 

Fourth,  the  clumsy  execution  of  the  deposite  law  :   and 

Fifth,  the  treasury  order  of  July,  1836." 

These  points  were  severally  established  by  Mr.  Clay,  in  a  gen- 
eral survey  and  detail  of  facts,  with  apposite  proofs  and  illustrations. 
The  following  remarks,  made  by  Mr.  Clay  on  this  occasion,  are 
introduced  here,  not  alone  for  their  own  inherent  importance,  but 
for  the  sake  of  some  others  growing  out  of  the  subject,  which  are 
deemed  necessary  to  disabuse  the  public  mind  of  errors  of  fact: — 

"  The  message  asserts  that  the  bank  of  the  United  States,  char- 
tered by  Pennsylvania,  has  not  been  able  to  save  itself  or  to  check 
other  institutions,  notwithstanding  'the  still  greater  strength  it  has 
been  said  to  possess  under  its  present  charter.'  That  bank  is  now 
a  mere  state  or  local  institution.  Why  is  it  referred  to  more  than 
the  bank  of  Virginia,  or  any  other  local  institution  ?  The  exalted 
station  which  the  president  fills  forbids  the  indulgence  of  the  sup- 
position, that  the  allusion  has  been  made  to  enable  the  administra- 
tion to  profit  by  the  prejudices  which  have  been  excited  against  it. 
Wn.s  it  the  duty  of  that  bank,  more  than  any  other  state  bank,  to 
chcik  the  local  institutions?  Was  it  not  even  under  less  obliga- 
tion to  do  so  than  the  deposite  banks,  selected  and  fostered  by  the 
general  government? 

"  But  how  could  the  message  venture  to  assert,  that  it  has  greater 
strength  than  the  late  bank  of  the  United  States  possessed  ?  What- 
ever may  be  the  liberality  of  the  conditions  of  its  charter,  it  is 
impossible  that  any  single  state  could  confer  upon  it  faculties  equal 
to  those  granted  to  the  late  bank  of  the  United  States — first,  in 
making  it  the  sole  depository  of  the  revenue  of  the  United  States  ; 
and,  secondly,  in  making  its  notes  receivable  in  the  payment  of  all 
public  dues.  If  a  bank  of  the  United  States  had  existed,  it  would 
have  had  ample  notice  of  the  accumulation  of  public  moneys  in 
the  local  banks ;  and,  by  timely  measures  of  precaution,  it  could 


THE    SUB-TREASURY.  33 

have  prevented  the  speculating  uses  to  which  they  were  appHed. 
Such  an  institution  would  have  been  bound  by  its  relations  to  the 
government,  to  observe  its  appropriations  and  financial  arrange- 
ment and  wants,  and  to  hold  itself  always  ready  promptly  to  meet 
them.  It  would  have  drawn  together  gradually,  but  certainly,  the 
public  moneys,  however  dispersed.  Responsibility  would  have 
been  concentrated  upon  it  alone,  instead  of  being  weakened  or 
lost  by  diffusion  among  some  eighty  or  ninety  local  banks,  dis- 
persed throughout  the  country,  and  acting  without  any  effective 
concert." 

The  very  just  rebuke  administered  by  Mr.  Clay,  in  the  above 
extract,  to  Mr.  Van  Buren,  for  pandering  in  his  message  to  preju- 
dices sown  and  nourished  for  party  purposes,  will  be  appreciated. 
No  man  knew  better  than  Mr.  Van  Buren,  that  the  bank  chartered 
by  the  state  of  Pennsylvania  for  its  own  state  purposes,  which  very 
improperly  took  the  name  of  the  "  Bank  of  the  United  States," 
to  avail  itself  of  the  credit  of  that  institution — thereby  imposing 
upon  the  public,  and  making  a  great  political  party  responsible  for 
it — occupied  precisely  the  same  position  as  any  other  state  bank, 
and  was  no  more  worthy  of  a  special  notice  in  the  president's  mes- 
sage. Ever  since  the  failure  of  that  bank,  the  same  unfairness  has 
labored  to  keep  up  the  idea  in  the  popular  mind,  that  it  was  the 
failure  of  the  national  bank,  after  which  it  was  fraudulently  named. 
It  would  be  equally  proper  to  call  the  United  States  hotel  in  New 
York,  or  the  United  States  eating-house  in  Washington,  a  na- 
tional INSTITUTION,  and  hold  the  government  of  the  United 
States,  or  a  political  party,  responsible  for  it.  And  yet,  the  fate 
of  that  institution  in  Philadelphia,  is  still  pointed  to  as  the  down- 
fall of  the  national  bank.  It  was  indeed  true,  that  the  president 
of  the  national  bank — which  had  ceased  to  exist — was  at  the  head 
of  this  bank  ;  that  the  business  of  both  was  done  in  the  same  build- 
ing, and  the  money  kept  in  the  same  vaults ;  that  much  of  the 
capital  of  the  first  was  transferred  to  constitute  the  capital  of  the 
second  ;  but  a  man  would  be  scouted,  that  should  pretend  to  iden- 
tify one  institution  with  the  other.  The  faculties  of  this  state 
bank,  as  in  the  case  of  many  other  state  banks  of  that  time,  were 
perverted  from  banking  to  commercial  functions,  and  it  was  ruined. 
But  there  was  no  such  practice,  and  no  such  tendency,  in  the  bank 
of  the  United  States ;  nor  is  there  any  ground  to  believe,  that  its 
fidelity  and  strength,  as  a  national  institution,  would  have  been 
impaired,  if  its  charter  had  been  renewed. 

In  January,  1840,  while  the  sub-treasury  bill  was  still  pending, 

Vol.  II.— 3 


04  THE    SUB-TREASURY. 

Mr.  Clay  had  occasion  to  make  a  similar  reply  to  a  like  misstate- 
ment of  Mr.  Buchanan,  as  follows: — 

'•  ^^r.  President,  can  the  distinguished  senator  be  serious  in  his 
description  of  these  attributes  of  the  Pennsylvania  bank  t  Surely 
he  must  have  intended  that  part  of  his  speech  for  some  other  thea- 
tre. In  the  first  place,  Pennsylvania,  besides  sundry  other  onerous 
conditions  of  loans  and  subscriptions  to  object?  of  internal  improve- 
ments, levied  upon  tlie  present  bank,  in  the  form  of  bonus,  some 
four  or  five  millions  of  dollars.  Then  the  general  government  has 
withdrawn  from  it  the  seven  millions  of  stock  which  it  held  in  the 
old  bank — a  circumstance  which  I  have  no  doubt  has  tended  to 
cripple  its  operations.  And  it  is  wholly  without  the  deposites  of 
the  government,  which  the  former  bank  possessed.  Instead  of 
being  an  ally,  the  general  government  has  been  in  the  relation  of 
an  enemy  to  it.  And  it  has  had  to  encounter  all  the  enmity  of  a 
pow^erful  party,  within  the  bosom  of  the  commonwealth.  So  far 
from  assuming  the  office  of  a  regulator  of  the  local  banks,  its  late 
distinguished  president,  upon  whose  authority  the  senator  relies 
for  proof  of  the  extent  and  liberality  of  its  new  charter,  expressly 
declared  that  it  had  ceased  to  be  a  general  agent,  and  had  retired 
within  the  circle  of  its  state  duties.  So  far  from  having  derived 
any  strength  from  its  connexion  with  the  late  bank  of  the  United 
States,  there  can  not  be  a  doubt  that  that  connexion  rendered  it 
far  less  efficient  than  it  would  have  been,  if  it  had  gone  into  opera- 
tion with  an  unencumbered  capital,  freshly  subscribed,  of  thirty- 
five  millions  of  dollars." 

Mr.  Clay  very  justly  notices  in  this  speech  the  want  of  fidelity 
in  the  federal  executive  in  carrying  out  the  purposes  of  the  com- 
promise act,  and  shows  the  bad  effects  of  hostility  to  that  measure 
from  the  same  quarter  ; — that  this  bad  faith  had  its  share  of  influ- 
ence in  producing  the  misfortunes  of  the  country. 

"But  [said  Mr.  Clay]  the  cause  of  our  present  difficulties  may 
be  stated  in  another  ivay.  During  the  late  administration  [Jack- 
son's] we  have  been  deprived  of  the  practical  benefit  o(aJree  gov- 
ernment ;  the  forms,  it  is  true,  remained  and  were  observed,  but 
the  essence  did  not  exist.  In  a  free,  or  self-government,  the  col- 
lected wisdom,  the  ao;frreo:ate  wisdom  of  the  whole,  or  at  least  of  a 
majority,  moulds  and  directs  the  course  of  public  affairs.  In  a 
despotism,  the  will  of  a  single  individual  governs.  In  a  practi- 
cally free  government,  the  nation  controls  the  chief  magistrate  ;  in 
an  arbitrary  government,  the  chief  magistrate  controls  the  nation. 
And  has  not  this  been  our  situation  in  the  period  mentioned? 
Has  not  one  man  forced  his  will  on  the  nation  ?  Have  not  all 
these  disastrous  measures — the  veto  of  the  bank,  the  removal  of 
the  deposites,  the  rejection  of  the  land  bill,  and  the  treasury  order 


H 

THE    SUB-TREASURY.  35 

— which    have   led    to   our    present    unfortunate    condition — ^been 

adopted,  in  spite  of  the  wishes  of  the  country,  and  in  opposition, 

probably,  to  those  of  the  dominant  party  itself? 

******** 

"  We  are  told,  that  it  is  necessary  to  separate,  divorce  the  gov- 
ernment from  the  banks.  Let  us  not  be  deluded  by  sounds. 
Senators  might  as  well  talk  of  separating  the  government  from  the 
states,  or  from  the  people,  or  from  the  country.  We  are  all — 
people,  states,  union,  banks — bound  up  and  interwoven  together, 
united  in  fortune  and  destiny,  and  all,  all  entitled  to  the  protecting 
care  of  a  parental  government.  You  may  as  well  attempt  to  make 
the  government  breathe  a  different  air,  drink  a  different  water,  be 
lighted  and  warmed  by  a  different  sun,  from  that  of  the  people  ! 
A  hard-money  government,  and  a  paper-money  people  !  A  gov- 
ernment, an  official  corps — the  servants  of  the  people — glittering 
in  gold,  and  the  people  themselves,  their  masters,  buried  in  ruin, 
and  covered  with  rags  ! 

"  No  prudent  or  practical  government,  will  in  its  measures  run 
counter  to  the  long-settled  habits  and  usages  of  the  people.  Re- 
ligion, language,  laws,  the  established  currency  and  business  of  a 
whole  country,  can  not  be  easily  or  suddenly  uprooted.  After  the 
denomination  of  our  coin  was  changed  to  dollars  and  cents,  many 
years  elapsed  before  the  old  method  of  keeping  accounts,  in 
pounds,  shillings,  and  pence,  was  abandoned  ;  and,  to  this  day, 
there  are  probably  some  men  of  the  last  century  who  adhere  to  it. 
If  a  fundamental  change  becomes  necessary,  it  should  not  be  sud- 
den, but  conducted  by  slow  and  cautious  degrees.  The  people 
of  the  United  States  have  been  always  a  paper-money  people.  It 
was  paper  money  that  carried  us  through  the  revolution,  estab- 
lished our  liberties,  and  made  us  a  free  and  independent  people. 
And,  if  the  experience  of  the  revolutionary  war  convinced  our 
ancestors,  as  we  are  convinced,  of  the  evils  of  an  irredeemable  pa- 
per medium,  it  was  put  aside  only  to  give  place  to  that  convertible 
paper,  which  has  so  powerfully  contributed  to  our  rapid  advance- 
ment, prosperity,  and  greatness." 

The  insecurity  of  the  sub-treasury  system  as  a  depository  of 
public  funds,  and  the  fearful  increase  of  executive  patronage  con- 
sequent thereupon,  are  delineated  by  Mr.  Clay  with  great  truth 
and  graphic  power  : — 

"  There  stands  the  executive  power,  perpetuated  in  all  its  vast 
magnitude,  undiminished,  reasserted,  and  overshadowing  all  the 
other  departments  of  the  government.  Every  trophy  which  the 
late  president  won  from  them,  now  decorates  the  executive  man- 
sion. Every  power,  which  he  tore  from  a  bleeding  constitution, 
is  now  in  the  executive  armory,  ready,  as  time  and  occasion  may 


36  THE    SUB-TREAPURY. 

prompt  the  existins;  incumbent,  wherever  he  may  be,  to  be  thun 
dered  against  the  hberties  of  the  people. 

"Whatever,"  said  Mr.  Clay,  "may  have  been  the  motives  of 
the  course  of  others,  I  owe  it  to  myself  and  to  truth  to  say,  that 
in  deprecating  the  election  of  General  Andrew  Jackson,  to  the 
office  of  chief  magistrate,  it  was  not  from  any  private  considera- 
tions, but  because  I  considered  it  would  be  a  great  calamity  to  my 
country;  and  that,  in  whatever  opposition  I  made  to  the  measures 
of  his  administration,  which  more  than  realized  my  worst  appre- 
hensions, I  was  guided  solely  by  a  sense  of  public  duty.  And  I 
do  now  declare  my  solemn  and  unshaken  conviction,  that,  until 
the  executive  power,  as  enlarged,  extended,  and  consolidated  by 
him,  is  reduced  within  its  true  constitutional  limits,  there  is  no  per- 
manent security  for  the  liberties  and  happiness  of  this  people. 

"Pass  this  bill,  and  whatever  divorce  its  friends  may  profess  to 
be  its  aim,  that  perilous  union  of  the  purse  and  the  sword,  so  justly 
dreaded  by  our  British  and  revolutionary  ancestors,  becomes  ab 
solute  and  complete." 

But  the  greatest  objection,  after  all,  arises  from  the  fact,  which 
could  not  be  concealed,  that  in  putting  down  one  system  of  bank- 
ing, known  and  tried,  the  sub-treasury,  in  its  practical  operation, 
as  a  substitute,  must  necessarily  become  a  government  bank 
of  stupendous,  ever-increasing,  unlimited,  alarming  power,  in  tho 
worst  and  most  dangerous  hands — worst  because  unsuitable,  and 
most  dangerous  because  of  the  motives  to  abuse  and  the  lack  of 
all  restraint.     The  governing  power  would  be  irresponsible. 

But  the  speech  of  Mr.  Clay  at  the  next  and  regular  session  of 
Congress,  on  this  subject,  delivered  February  19,  lS-38,  is  deser- 
ving of  special  regard.  The  stupendous  alteration  proposed  in 
the  very  structure  of  the  government,  to  engraft  upon  it,  and  in- 
fuse through  all  its  branches,  a  new  and  momentous  power,  had 
evidently  lain  with  a  heavy  pressure  upon  his  mind,  during  the 
recess,  and  since  the  bill  had  again  been  brought  forward  at  this 
session.  Never  has  Mr.  Clay  been  known  to  rise  on  any  public 
occasion,  with  such  marked  seriousness  and  solemnity,  as  at  this 
time.     His  exordium  was  as  follows: — 

"I  have  seen  some  public  service,  passed  through  many  troubled 
times,  and  often  addressed  public  assemblies,  in  this  capitol  and 
elsewhere;  but  never  before  have  I  risen  in  a  deliberative  body, 
under  more  oppressed  feelings,  or  with  a  deeper  sense  of  awful 
responsibility.  Never  before  have  T  risen  to  express  my  opinions 
upon  any  public  measure,  fraught  with  such  tremendous  conse- 
quences to  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of  the  country,  and  so  per- 
ilous to  the  liberties  of  the  people,  as  I  solemnly  believe  the  bill 


THE    SUB-TREASURY.  37 

under  consideration  will  be.  If  you  knew,  sir,  what  sleepless  hours 
reflection  upon  it  has  cost  me;  if  you  knew  with  what  fervor  and 
sincerity  I  have  implored  divine  assistance  to  strengthen  and-  sus- 
tain me  in  my  opposition  to  it,  I  should  have  credit  with  you,  at 
least,  for  the  sincerity  of  my  convictions,  if  I  shall  be  so  unfortu- 
nate as  not  to  have  your  concurrence  as  to  the  dangerous  character 
of  the  measure.  And  I  have  thanked  my  God  that  he  has  pro- 
longed my  life  until  the  present  time,  to  enable  me  to  exert  myself 
in  the  service  of  my  country,  against  a  project  far  transcending  in 
pernicious  tendency  any  that  I  have  ever  had  occasion  to  consider. 
I  thank  him  for  the  health  I  am  permitted  to  enjoy;  I  thank  him 
for  the  soft  and  sweet  repose  which  I  experienced  last  night;  T 
thank  him  for  the  bright  and  glorious  sun  which  shines  upon  us 
this  day. 

"It  is  not  my  purpose,  at  this  time,  Mr.  President,  to  go  at  large 
into  a  consideration  of  the  causes  which  have  led  to  the  present 
most  disastrous  state  of  public  affairs.  That  duty  was  performed 
by  others,  and  myself,  at  the  extra  session  of  Congress.  It  was 
then  clearly  shown,  that  it  sprung  from  the  ill-advised  and  unfor- 
tunate measures  of  executive  administration.  I  now  will  content 
myself,  with  saying  that,  on  the  fourth  day  of  March,  1829,  Andrew 
Jackson,  not  by  the  blessing  of  God,  was  made  president  of  these 
United  States ;  that  the  country  was  then  eminently  prosperous  ; 
that  its  currency  was  as  sound  and  safe  as  any  that  a  people  were 
ever  blessed  v^'ith ;  that,  throughout  the  wide  extent  of  this  whole 
Union,  it  possessed  a  uniform  value ;  and  that  exchanges  were 
conducted  with  such  regularity  and  perfection,  that  funds  could  be 
transmitted  from  one  extremity  of  the  Union  to  the  other,  with  the 
least  possible  risk  or  loss.  In  this  encouraging  condition  of  the 
business  of  the  country,  it  remained  for  several  years,  until  after 
the  war,  wantonly  waged  against  the  late  bank  of  the  United  States, 
was  completely  successful,  by  the  overthrow  of  that  invaluable  in- 
stitution. What  our  present  situation  is,  is  as  needless  to  describe 
as  it  is  painful  to  contemplate.  First  felt  in  our  great  commercial 
marts,  distress  and  embarrassment  have  penetrated  into  the  interior, 
and  now  pervade  almost  the  entire  Union.  It  has  been  justly 
remarked  by  one  of  the  soundest  and  most  practical  writers  that  I 
have  had  occasion  to  consult,  that  'all  convulsions  in  the  circula- 
tion and  commerce  of  every  country  must  originate  in  the  opera- 
tions of  the  government,  or  in  the  mistaken  views  and  erroneous 
measures  of  those  possessing  the  power  of  influencing  credit  and 
circulation ;  for  they  are  not  otherwise  susceptible  of  convulsion ; 
and  if  left  to  themselves,  they  will  find  their  own  level,  and  flow 
nearly  in  one  uniform  stream.' 

"  Yes,  Mr.  President,  we  all  have  but  too  melancholy  a  conscious- 
ness of  the  unhappy  condition  of  our  country.  We  all  too  well 
know,  that  our  noble  and  gallant  ship  lies  helpless  and  immoveable 


38  THE    SUB-TKEASUaV. 

upon  breakers,  dismasted,  the  surge  beating  over  her  venerable 
sides,  and  the  crew  threatened  vvith  instantaneous  destruction.  How 
caqie  she  there  ?  Who  was  tiie  pilot  at  the  helm  when  she  was 
stranded?  The  party  in  power!  The  pilot  was  aided  by  all  the 
science  and  skill,  by  all  the  charts  and  instruments,  of  such  distin- 
guished navigators  as  Washington,  the  Adamses,  Jefferson,  Madi- 
son, and  Monroe ;  and  yet  he  did  not,  or  could  not,  save  the  pub- 
lic vessel.  She  was  placed  in  her  present  miserable  condition  by 
his  bungling  navigation,  or  by  his  w^ant  of  skill  and  judgment.  It 
is  impossible  for  him  to  escape  from  one  or  the  other  horn  of  that 
dilemma.     I  leave  him  at  liberty  to  choose  between  them." 

The  plan  of  this  speech  is  laid  out  as  follows : — 

"1  shall  endeavor,  Mr.  President,  in  the  course  of  the  address  I 
am  about  making,  to  establish  certain  propositions,  which  I  believe 
to  be  incontestable ;  and  for  the  sake  of  perspicuity,  I  will  state 
them  severally  to  the  senate.     I  shall  contend  : — 

*'  First,  that  it  was  the  deliberate  purpose  and  fixed  design  of  the 
late  administration  to  establish  a  government  bank — a  treasury 
bank — to  be  administered  and  controlled  by  the  executive  de- 
partment. 

"  Secondly,  that,  with  that  view,  and  to  that  end,  it  was  its  aim 
and  intention  to  overthrow  the  whole  banking  system,  as  existing 
in  the  United  States  when  that  administration  came  into  power, 
beginning  with  the  bank  of  the  United  States,  and  ending  with  the 
state  banks. 

"  Thirdly,  that  the  attack  was  first  confined,  from  considerations 
of  policy,  to  the  bank  of  the  United  States ;  but  that,  after  its  over- 
throw was  accomplished,  it  was  then  directed,  and  has  since  been 
continued,  aijainst  the  state  banks. 

"Fourthly,  that  the  present  administration,  by  its  acknowledg- 
ments, emanating  from  the  highest  and  most  authentic  source,  has 
succeeded  to  the  principles,  plans,  and  policy,  of  the  preceding 
administration,  and  stands  solemnly  pledged  to  complete  and  per- 
fect them. 

"  And,  fifthly,  that  the  bill  under  consideration  Is  intended  to 
execute  the  pledge,  by  establishing,  upon  the  ruins  of  the  late  bank 
of  the  United  States,  and  the  state  banks,  a  government  bank,  to 
be  managed  and  controlled  by  the  treasury  department,  acting  un- 
der the  commands  of  the  president  of  the  United  States. 

"I  believe,  solemnly  believe,  the  truth  of  every  one  of  these  five 
propositions.  In  tlie  support  of  them,  I  shall  not  rely  upon  any 
gratuitous  surmises  or  vague  conjectures,  but  upon  proofs,  clear, 
positive,  undeniable,  and  demonstrative.  To  establish  the  first 
four,  I  shall  adduce  evidence  of  the  highest  possible  authenticity, 
of  facts  admitted  or  undeniable,  and  fair  reasoning  founded  on 
them.     And  as  to  the  last,  the  measure  under  consideration,  I  think 


THE    SUB-TREASURY.  39 

the  testimony,  intrinsic  and  extrinsic,  on  which  I  depend,  stamps, 
beyond  all  doubt,  its  true  character  as  a  government  bank,  and 
ought  to  carry  to  the  mind  of  the  senate  the  conviction  which  I 
entertain,  and  in  which  I  feel  perfectly  confident  the  whole  country 
will  share." 

The  first  three  of  these  propositions  are  established  with  great 
clearness  and  force,  by  citations  from  General  Jackson's  messages, 
beginning  with  the  first,  in  1829,  and  pursuing  the  gradual  disclo- 
sure of  this  purpose  in  his  public  and  official  documents,  during 
the  term  of  his  administration  of  eight  years.  As  a  part  of  an  ex- 
tended clause  of  reasoning  on  the  subject,  the  project  is  fully 
brought  out  in  the  message  of  1829  :  "  I  submit,  whether  a  national 
one  [hdink'j,fou7ided  iq)on  the  credit  of  the  government  and  its  reve- 
nues, might  not  be  devised,"  &c.  In  the  message  of  1830,  he 
revives  the  subject  in  another  extended  paragraph,  and,  among 
other  things,  says  :  "  It  becomes  us  to  inquire,  whether  it  is  not 
possible  to  secure  the  advantages  afforded  by  the  present  bank, 
through  the  agency  of  a  bank  of  the  United  States,  so  modijicd  in 
its  principles,  as  to  avoid  constitutional  objections.  It  is  thought 
practicable  to  organize  such  a  bank,  with  the  necessary  officers,  as 

A  BRANCH  OF  THE  TREASURY  DEPARTMENT,"  &C.  In  the  mes- 
sage of  1831,  he  says  :  "Entertaining  the  opinions  heretofore  ex- 
pressed, in  relation  to  the  bank  of  the  United  States,  as  at  'present 
orga7iized,  I  felt  it  my  duty,  in  my  former  messages,  frankly  to 
disclose  them,  in  order  that  the  attention  of  the  legislature  and  the 
people  should  be  seasonably  directed  to  that  important  subject,  and 
that  it  might  be  considered  and  finally  disposed  of,  in  a  manner 
best  calculated  to  promote  the  ends  of  the  constitution,  and  sub- 
serve the  public  interests."  In  his  veto  message  of  1832,  he  says: 
"I  do  not  entertain  a  doubt,  that  a  bank  of  the  United  States  might 
be  so  organized,  &c.  Had  the  executive  been  called  upon  to  fur- 
nish the  project  of  suclt  an  institution,  the  duty  would  have  been 
cheerfully  performed."  In  the  message  of  1834,  the  war  upon 
the  state  banks  was  commenced,  by  proposing  a  divorce  of  the 
government  from  all  banks,  and  endeavoring  to  bring  odium  upon 
such  institutions.  In  the  message  of  1835,  this  attack  is  yet  more 
distinctly  disclosed  :  "  In  considering  the  means  of  obtaining  so 
important  an  end,  we  must  set  aside  all  calculations  of  temporary 
convenience.  .  .  .  We  must  recur  to  ^r^?  prmc/j^/es,  and  see  what 
it  is  that  has  prevented  the  legislation  of  Congress,  and.  of  the  states, 
on  the  subject  of  the  currency,  &c.  ...  I  am  sure  I  can  not  be 


40  THE    SUB-TREASURY. 

mistaken  in  ascribing  our  want  of  success  to  the  sjiirit  of  inuiu,i:(>lij. 
All  the  dangers  which  our  system  has  yet  encountered,  may  be 
traced  to  the  resort  to  implied  powers,  and  the  nse  of  corporations 
clothed  with  privileges.  .  .  .  We  are  now  to  see,  whether,  in  the 
present  favorable  condition  of  the  country,  we  can  take  an  effectual 
stand  against  this  spirit.  ...  It  is  ascertained  that  the  manage- 
ment of  the  revenue  can  be  made  auxiliary  to  reform.  It  has  only 
to  be  fostered  by  proper  regulations  on  the  part  of  Congress,  to  se- 
cure a  practical  return,  to  the  extent  required  for  the  security  of 
the  currency,  to  the  constitutional  medium." 

Upon  this  message,  Mr.  Clay  says : — 

"  As  in  the  instance  of  the  attack  upon  the  bank  of  the  United 
States,  the  approach  to  the  state  banks  is  slow,  cautious,  and  insid- 
ious. He  reminds  Congress  and  the  country,  that  all  calculations 
of  temporary  convenience  must  be  set  aside  ;  that  we  must  recur 
to  first  principles ;  and  that  we  must  see  what  it  is  that  has  pre- 
vented the  legislation  of  Congress,  and  the  states,  on  the  subject 
of  the  currency  from  satisfying  public  expectation.  He  declares 
his  conviction,  that  the  want  of  success  has  proceeded  from  the 
undue  countenance  which  has  been  afforded  to  the  spirit  of  mo- 
nopoly. All  the  serious  dangers  which  our  system  has  yet  en- 
countered, may  be  traced  to  the  resort  to  implied  powers,  and  to 
the  use  of  covporations.  We  have  felt,  he  says,  but  one  class  of 
these  dangers  in  the  contest  with  the  bank  of  the  United  States, 
and  he  clearly  intimates  that  the  other  class  is  the  state  banks.  We 
are  now  to  see,  he  proceeds,  whether  in  the  present  favorable  con- 
dition of  the  country,  we  can  not  take  an  effectual  stand  against 
this  spirit  of  monopoly.  Reverting  to  his  favorite  scheme  of  a 
government  bank,  he  says,  it  is  ascertained,  that,  instead  of  being 
made  necessary  to  promote  the  evils  of  an  unchecked  yaper  system, 
the  management  of  the  revenue  can  be  made  auxiliary  to  the  reform 
which  he  is  desirous  to  introduce.  The  designs  of  President 
Jackson  against  the  state  banks  are  more  fully  developed  and  en- 
larged upon  in  his  annual  message  of  1S36." 

After  quoting  largely  from  the  message  of  1836,  Mr.  Clay 
says  : — 

"  It  is  seen  that  he  again  calls  the  attention  of  Congress  to  the 
currency  of  the  country,  alleges  that  it  was  apparent,  from  the  whole 
context  of  the  constitution,  as  well  as  the  history  of  the  times  that 
gave  birth  to  it,  that  it  was  the  purpose  of  the  convention  to  estab- 
lish a  currency  consisting  of  the  prccioxis  metals  ;  imputes  variable- 
ness and  a  liability  to  inordinate  contraction  and  expansion  to  the 
existing  paper  system,  and  denounces  bank  issues,  as  being  an  un- 
certain standard.     He  felicitates  himself  upon  the  dangers  which 


THE    SUB-TREASURY.  41 

have  been  obviated  by  the  overthrow  of  the  bank  of  the  United 
States,  but  declares  that  Uttle  has  been  yet  done,  except  to  pro- 
duce a  salutary  change  of  public  opinion  toward  restoring  to  the 
country,  the  sound  currency  jrrovided  for  in  the  constUution.  I  will 
here  say,  in  passing,  that  all  this  outcry  about  the  precious  metals, 
gold,  and  the  constitutional  currency,  has  been  put  forth  to  delude 
the  people,  and  to  use  the  precious  metals  as  an  instrument  to 
break  down  the  banking  institutions  of  the  states,  and  thus  to  pave 
the  way  for  the  ultimate  establishment  of  a  great  government  bank. 
In  the  present  advanced  state  of  civilization,  in  the  present  condi- 
tion of  the  commerce  of  the  world,  and  in  the  actual  relations  of 
trade  and  intercourse  between  the  different  nations  of  the  world,  it 
is  perfectly  chimerical  to  suppose  that  the  currency  of  the  United 
States  should  consist  exclusively,  or  principally,  of  the  precious 
metals." 

In  General  Jackson's  farewell  address,  on  retiring  from  the  gov- 
ernment, March  3,  1837,  he  says :  "  My  humble  efforts  have  not 
been  spared  during  my  administration,  to  restore  the  constitutional 
currency  of  gold  and  silver.  But  enough  yet  remains  to  require  all 
your  energy  and  perseverance.  .  .  .  The  constitution  of  the  United 
States  unquestionably  intended  to  secure  to  the  people  a  circulating 
medium  of  gold  and  silver.  But  the  estabhshment  of  a  national 
bank  by  Congress,  with  the  privilege  of  issuing  paper  money,  re- 
ceivable in  payment  of  the  public  dues,  and  the  unfortunate  course 
of  legislation  in  the  several  states  upon  the  same  subject,  drove 
from  general  circulation  the  constitutional  currency,  and  substituted 
one  of  paper  in  its  place." 

"  The  mask  [says  Mr.  Clay],  is  now  thrown  off,  and  he  boldly 
says  that  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  tmquestionably  in- 
tended to  secure  to  the  people  a  circulating  medium  of  gold  and 
silver.  They  have  not  enjoyed,  he  says,  that  benefit,  because  of 
the  establishment  of  a  national  bank,  and  the  unfort^mate  course  of 
legislation  in  the  several  states.  He  does  not  limit  his  condemna- 
tion of  the  past  policy  of  his  country  to  the  federal  government, 
of  which  he  had  just  ceased  to  be  the  chief,  but  he  extends  it  to 
the  states  also,  as  if  they  were  incompetent  to  judge  of  the  interests 
of  their  respective  citizens." 

In  support  of  the  fourth  proposition,  Mr.  Clay  says  : — 

"  The  proofs  on  this  subject  are  brief;  but  they  are  clear,  di- 
rect, and  plenary.  It  is  almost  impossible  for  any  unbiased  mind 
to  doubt  for  a  moment  about  them.  You,  sir,  will  be  surprised, 
when  I  shall  array  them  before  you,  at  their  irresistible  force.  The 
first  that  I  shall  offer  is  an  extract  from  Mr.  Van  Buren's  letter  of 


42  THE    SUB-TREASURY. 

acceptance  of  the  nomination  of  the  Baltimore  convention,  dated 
May  2'3d,  IS'35.     In  that  letter  he  says: — 

"  'I  content  myself,  on  this  occasion,  with  saying,  that  I  con- 
sider myself  the  honored  instrument  selected  by  the  friends  of  the 
present  administration,  to  carry  out  Ifs  pr'inclplcs  and  jjolicfj  ;  and 
that,  as  well  from  inclination  as  from  di/fi/,  I  shall,  if  honored  with 
the  choice  of  the  American  people,  endeavor  generally  to  follow 
in  the  footsteps  of  President  Jackson  ;  happy  if  I  shall  be  able  to 
perfect  the  work  which  he  has  so  gloriously  begim.^ 

*'  Mr.  Van  Buren  announces  that  he  was  the  honored  instrument 
selected  by  the  friends  of  the  present  administration,  to  carry  out 
its  principles  and  policy.  The  honored  instrument !  That  word, 
according  to  the  most  approved  definition,  means  tool.  He  was, 
then,  the  honored  tool — to  do  what?  to  promote  the  honor,  and 
advance  the  welfare  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  and  to  add 
to  the  glory  of  his  country  V  No,  no  ;  his  country  was  not  in  his 
thoughts.  Party,  party,  filled  the  place  in  his  bosom  which  country 
should  have  occupied.  He  was  the  honored  tool  to  carry  out  the 
principles  and  policy  of  General  Jackson's  administration  ;  and,  if 
elected,  he  should,  as  vv^ell  from  inclination  as  from  duty,  endeavor, 
generally,  to  tread  in  the  footsteps  of  General  Jackson — happy  if 
he  should  be  able  to  perfect  the  work  which  he  had  so  gloriously 
begun.  Duty  to  whom"?  to  the  country,  to  the  whole  people  of 
the  United  States  ?  No  such  thing;  but  duty  to  the  friends  of  the 
then  administration  ;  and  that  duty  required  him  to  tread  in  the 
footsteps  of  his  illustrious  predecessor,  and  to  perfect  the  work 
which  he  had  begun  !  Now,  the  senate  will  bear  in  mind  that  the 
most  distinguishing  features  of  General  Jackson's  administration 
related  to  the  currency  ;  that  he  had  denounced  the  banking  insti- 
tutions of  the  country;  that  he  had  overthrown  the  bank  of  the 
United  States  ;  that  he  had  declared,  when  that  object  was  accom- 
plished, only  one  half  the  work  was  completed  ;  that  he  then 
commenced  wai:  against  the  state  banks,  in  order  to  finish  the  other 
half;  that  he  constantly  persevered  in,  and  never  abandoned,  his 
favorite  project  of  a  great  government  treasury-bank  ;  and  that  he 
retired  from  the  office  of  chief-magistrate,  pouring  out,  in  liis  fare- 
well address,  anathemas  against  paper  money,  corporations,  and 
the  spirit  of  monopoly.  When  all  these  things  are  recollected,  it 
is  impossible  not  to  comprehend  clearly  what  Mr.  Van  Buren 
means,  by  carrying  out  tlie  principles  and  policy  of  the  late 
administration.  No  one  can  mistake  that  those  principles  and  that 
policy  require  him  to  break  down  the  local  institutions  of  the  states, 
and  to  discredit  and  destroy  the  paper  medium  which  they  issue. 
No  one  can  be  at  a  loss  to  understand,  that,  in  following  in  the 
footsteps  of  President  Jackson,  and  in  perfecting  the  work  which 
he  began,  Mr.  Van  Buren  means  to  continue  attacking,  systematic- 
ally, the  banks  of  the  states,  and  to  erect  on  their  ruins,  that  great 


THE    SUB-TREASURY.  43 

government  bank,  begun  by  bis  predecessor,  and  wbich  be  is  the 
.lonored  instrument  selected  to  complete.  Tbe  next  proof  wbich 
I  shall  offer  is  supplied  by  Mr.  Van  Buren's  inaugural  address, 
from  which  I  request  permission  of  the  senate  to  read  the  following 
extract : — 

"  'In  receiving  from  tbe  people  tbe  sacred  trust  twice  confided 
to  my  illustrious  predecessor,  and  which  he  has  discharged  so 
faithfully  and  so  well,  1  know  that  I  can  not  expect  to  perform  the 
arduous  task  with  equal  ability  and  success.  But,  antttd  as  I  have 
been  in  hin  counsels,  a  daily  witness  of  his  exclusive  and  unsurpassed 
devotion  to  bis  country's  welfare,  agreewg  wi/h  him  in  sentiments 
wbich  his  countrymen  have  warmly  supported,  and  permitted  to 
partake  largely  of  bis  confidence,  I  may  hope  that  somewhat  of  the 
same  cheering  approbation  will  be  found  to  attend  upon  my  path.' 

"  Here  we  find  Mr.  Van  Buren  distinctly  avowing,  what  the 
American  people  well  knew  before,  that  he  had  been  united  in  tbe 
counsels  of  General  Jackson  ;  that  he  bad  agreed  with  him  in  sen- 
timents, and  that  be  had  partaken  largely  of  bis  confidence.  This 
intimacy  and  confidential  intercourse  could  not  have  existed  with- 
out the  concurrence  of  Mr.  Van  Buren  in  all  those  leading  and 
prominent  measures  of  bis  friend,  wbich  related  to  the  establish- 
ment of  a  government  bank,  tbe  overthrow  of  tbe  bank  of  tbe 
United  States,  the  attack  upon  the  state  institutions,  and  the  denun- 
ciation of  tbe  paper  currency,  tbe  spirit  of  monopoly,  and  corpo- 
rations. Is  it  credible  that  General  Jackson  should  have  aimed  at 
tbe  accomplishment  of  all  these  objects,  and  entertained  all  these 
sentiments,  without  Mr.  Van  Buren's  participation  ? 

"  On  tbe  fifth  of  March  last,  not  a  doubt  was  entertained,  as  far 
as  my  knowledge  or  belief  extends,  that  Mr.  Van  Buren  would 
rescind  tbe  obnoxious  order.  I  appeal  to  the  senator  from  Mis- 
souri, who  sits  near  me  [Mr.  Linn],  to  tbe  senator  from  Missis- 
sippi, who  sits  fuithest  from  me  [Mr.  Walker],  to  the  senator  from 
Alabama  [Mr.  King],  and  to  the  whole  of  the  administration  sen- 
ators, if  such  was  not  the  expectation  of  all  of  them?  Was  there 
ever  an  occasion  in  which  a  new  administration  had  so  fine  an  op- 
portunity to  signalize  its  commencement  by  an  act  of  grace  and 
wisdom,  demanded  by  the  best  interests  and  most  anxious  wishes 
of  the  people  ?  But  Mr.  Van  Buren  did  not  think  proper  to  em- 
brace it.  He  bad  shared  too  largely  in  the  confidence  of  his  pred- 
ecessor, agreed  too  fullv  with  him  in  sentiments,  bad  been  too 
much  united  with  him  in  his  counsels,  to  rescind  an  order  which 
constituted  so  essential  a  part  of  the  system  which  had  been  de- 
liberately adopted  to  overthrow  the  state  banks." 

Tbe  order  of  Mr.  Van  Buren,  that  nothing  but  specie  should  be 
received  from  tbe  people,  in  paying  their  dues  to  tbe  treasury,  when 


44  THE    SUB-TREASURY. 

no  specie  could  be  had,  and  his  recommendation  of  a  bankrupt 
law  that  should  walk  over  within  the  lines  of  state  jurisdiction,  to 
wind  up  the  state  banks,  were  justly  regarded  as  a  most  offensive 
exhibition  of  his  obsequiousness  to  the  will  of  his  predecessor,  and 
of  a  determination  to  clear  the  way  by  force  for  the  establishment  of 
a  government  bank,  on  the  ruins  of  all  other  banks.  Such  was  the 
fierceness  of  the  war,  that  a  bill  was  brought  into  the  senate  by 
Mr.  Grundy,  to  suppress  the  only  currency  that  was  then  univer- 
sally current — specie  being  out  of  the  question — to  wit,  a  few 
hundred  thousand  dollars  of  the  old  bank  of  the  United  States. 

"  Sir  [said  Mr.  Clay],  if  the  bill  had  not  been  proposed  by 
my  old  friend  from  Tennessee,  I  would  say  its  author  better  de- 
served a  penitentiary  punishment,  than  those  against  whom  it  is 
directed.  I  remember  to  have  heard  of  an  illustrious  individual, 
now  in  retirement  [General  Jackson],  having,  on  some  occasion, 
burst  out  into  the  most  patriotic  indignation,  because  of  a  waggish 
trick  played  off  upon  him,  by  putting  a  note  of  the  late  bank  of 
the  United  States  into  his  silk  purse  with  his  gold." 

Mr.  Clay  went  on  to  show,  how  such  a  government  bank  would 
confer  boundless  power  on  the  national  executive ;  what  unlimited 
discretion  the  plan  proposed  to  confer  on  the  secretary  of  the 
treasury  ;  how  its  practical  operation  would  fill  up  the  channels  of 
circulation,  and  become  the  medium  of  trade,  to  the  exclusion  of 
all  other  currency ;  what  chances  of  speculation  in  brokerage  it 
would  afford  to  the  agents  and  favorites  of  government ;  how  easy 
it  would  be  for  a  chief-magistrate  to  abstract  millions  to  gain  an 
election,  and  himself  have  charge  of  the  secret ;  what  temptations 
to  enlarge  issues,  till  nobody  would  know  how  much  paper  was 
out,  and  it  should  finally  be  discovered,  that  the  world  was  full  of 
it,  and  no  specie  to  redeem  it ! 

"  All  experience  [said  Mr.  Clay]  has  demonstrated,  that  in 
banking  operations,  a  much  larger  amount  of  paper  can  be  kept 
out  in  circulation  than  the  specie  which  it  is  necessary  to  retain  in 
the  vaults  to  meet  it  when  presented  for  payment.  The  propor- 
tions which  the  same  experience  has  ascertained  to  be  entirely 
safe,  are  one  of  specie  to  three  of  paper.  If,  therefore,  the  exec- 
utive government  had  sixty  millions  of  dollars  accumulated  at  the 
port  of  New  York,  in  the  hands  of  the  receiver-general,  represented 
by  sixty  millions  of  government  drafts  in  circulation,  it  would  be 
known  that  twenty  of  that  sixty  millions  would  be  sufficient  to  re- 
tain to  meet  any  amount  of  drafts,  which,  in  ordinary  times,  would 
be  presented  for  payment.     There  would  then  remain  forty  mill- 


THE    SUB-TREASURY.  45 

ions  in  the  vaults,  idle  and  unproductive,  and  of  which  no  practi- 
cal use  could  be  made.  Well ;  a  great  election  is  at  hand  in  the 
state  of  New  York,  the  result  of  which  will  seal  the  fate  of  an  ex- 
isting administration.  If  the  application  of  ten  millions  of  that 
dormant  capital  could  save,  at  some  future  day,  a  corrupt  execu- 
tive from  overthrow,  can  it  be  doubted,  that  the  ten  millions  would 
be  applied  to  preserve  it  in  power?  Again,  let  us  suppose  some 
great  exigency  to  arise  :  a  season  of  war,  creating  severe  financial 
pressure  and  embarrassment.  Would  not  an  issue  of  paper, 
founded  upon  and  exceeding  the  specie  in  the  vaults,  in  some 
such  proportions  as  experience  had  demonstrated  might  be  safely 
emitted,  be  authorized?  Finally,  the  whole  amount  of  specie 
might  be  exhausted,  and  then,  as  it  is  easier  to  engrave  and  issue 
bank-notes,  than  to  perform  the  unpopular  office  of  imposing  taxes 
and  burdens,  the  discovery  would  be  made,  that  the  credit  of  the 
government  was  a  sufficient  basis  whereupon  to  make  emissions 
of  paper  money,  to  be  redeemed  when  peace  and  prosperity  re- 
turned. Then  we  should  have  the  days  of  continental  money, 
and  of  assignats,  restored!  *  *  *  *  * 

"  The  system  [said  Mr.  Clay]  would  control  you.  You  could 
not  control  the  system.        *  *  *  *  *  * 

"Assuming  the  downfall  of  the  local  banks — the  inevitable  con- 
sequence of  the  operations  of  this  great  government  bank;  assu- 
ming, as  I  have  shown  would  be  the  case,  that  the  government 
would  monopolize  the  paper  issues  of  the  country,  and  obtain  the 
possession  of  a  great  portion  of  the  specie  of  the  country,  we 
should  then  behold  a  combined  and  concentrated  moneyed  power, 
equal  to  that  of  all  the  existing  banks  of  the  United  States,  with 
that  of  the  late  bank  of  the  United  States  superadded.  This  tre- 
mendous power  would  be  wielded  by  the  secretary  of  the  treasury, 
acting  under  the  immediate  commands  of  the  president  of  the 
United  States.  Here  would  be  a  perfect  union  of  the  sword  and 
the  purse;  here  would  be  no  imaginary,  but  an  actual,  visible,  tan- 
gible, consolidation  of  the  moneyed  power.  Who  or  what  could 
withstand  it  ?  The  states  themselves  would  become  suppliants  at 
the  feet  of  the  executive  for  a  portion  of  those  paper  emissions,  of 
the  power  to  issue  which  they  had  been  stripped,  and  which  he 
now  exclusively  possessed.       ***** 

Look  !  "  How  admirably  did  the  whole  system,  during  the 
forty  years  of  its  existence  [bank  of  the  United  States],  move  and 
work !  And  on  the  two  unfortunate  occasions  of  its  ceasing  to  ex- 
ist, how  quickly  did  the  business  and  transactions  of  the  country 
run  into  wild  disorder  and  utter  confusion  [        *  *  *  * 

"  1  have  been  curious,  Mr.  President,  to  know  whence  this  idea 
of  receivers-general  was  derived.  It  has  been  supposed  to  have 
been  borrowed  from  France.  It  required  all  the  power  of  that 
most  extraordinary  man  that  ever  lived,  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  when 


46  THE    SUB-TREASURY. 

he  was  in  his  meridian  greatness,  to  displace  the  farmers-general, 
and  to  substitute  in  their  place  the  receivers-general.  The  new 
system  requires,  I  think  I  have  heard  it  stated,  something  like  one 
hundred  thousand  employees  to  have  it  executed.  And,  notwith- 
standing the  modesty  of  the  infant  promises  of  this  new  project, 
I  have  no  doubt  that  ultimately  we  shall  have  to  employ  a  number 
of  persons  approximating  to  that  which  is  retained  in  France. 
That  will  undoubtedly  be  the  case  whenever  we  shall  revive  the 
system  of  internal  taxation.  In  France,  what  reconciled  them  to 
the  system  was,  that  Napoleon  first,  and  the  Bourbons  afterward, 
were  pleased  with  the  immense  patronage  which  it  gave  them. 
They  liked  to  have  one  hundred  thousand  dependants  to  add 
strength  to  the  throne,  which  had  been  recently  constructed  or  re- 
ascended.  I  thought,  however,  that  the  learned  chairman  of  the 
committee  of  finance,  must  have  had  some  other  besides  the 
French  model  for  his  receivers-general ;  and,  accordingly,  looking 
into  Smith's  history  of  his  own  state,  I  found,  that,  when  it  was 
yet  a  colony,  some  cenHiry  and  a  half  ago,  and  when  its  present 
noble  capital  still  retained  the  name  of  New  Amsterdam,  the  his- 
torian says  :  '  Among  the  principal  laws  enacted  at  this  session,  we 
may  mention  that  for  establishing  the  revenue,  which  was  drawn 
into  precedent.  The  sums  raised  by  it  were  made  payable  into 
the  hands  of  receivers-general,  and  issued  by  the  governor's  war- 
rant. By  this  means  the  governor  became,  for  a  season,  inde- 
pendent of  the  people,  and  hence  we  find  frequent  instances  of  the 
assemblies  contending  with  him  for  the  discharge  of  debts  to  pri- 
vate persons,  contracted  on  the  faith  of  the  government.'  The 
then  governor  of  the  colony  was  a  man  of  great  violence  of  tem- 
per, and  arbitrary  in  his  conduct.  How  the  sub-treasury  system 
of  that  day  operated,  the  same  historian  informs  us  in  a  subsequent 
part  of  his  work  :  '  The  revenue,'  he  says,  '  established  the  last 
year,  was  at  this  session  continued  five  years  longer  than  was  origi- 
nally intended.  This  was  rendering  the  governor  independent  of 
the  people.  For,  at  that  day,  the  assembly  had  no  treasure,  but 
the  amount  of  all  taxes  went,  of  course,  into  the  hands  of  the  re- 
ceiver-general, who  was  appointed  by  the  crown.  Out  of  this 
fund,  moneys  were  only  issuable  by  the  governor's  warrant,  so  that 
every  officer  in  the  government,  from  Mr.  Blaithwait,  who  drew 
annually  five  per  centum  out  of  the  revenue,  as  auditor-general, 
down  to  the  meanest  servant  of  the  public,  became  dependent, 
solely,  on  the  governor.  And  hence  we  find  the  house,  at  the 
close  of  every  session,  humbly  addressing  his  excellency,  for  the 
trifling  wages  of  their  own  clerk.'  And,  Mr.  President,  if  this 
measure  should  unhappily  pass,  the  day  may  come,  when  the  sen- 
ate of  the  United  States  will  have  humbly  to  implore  some  future 
president  of  the  United  States  to  grant  it  money  to  pay  the  wages 
of  its  own  sergeant-at-arms,  and  doorkeeper."        *  »  # 


THE    SUB-TREASURY.  47 

Tlie  earliest  and  most  remarkable  instance  of  siih-treasury  in 
history,  and  the  most  graphic  picture  of  the  system,  is  found  in  the 
47th  chapter  of  Genesis,  from  the  15th  to  the  26th  verses,  under 
which  the  treasury  of  Pharaoh  first  swallowed  up  all  the  money  of 
the  people  ;  next,  their  cattle  were  taken ;  then,  their  lands ;  last 
of  all,  they  sold  themselves  into  perpetual  bondage,  to  render  to 
Pharaoh,  in  perpetuity,  one  fifth  of  the  products  of  their  labor; 
and  they  remained  in  slavery  for  ever  afterward.  When  Spain  ex- 
hausted the  mines  of  South  America,  and  in  the  end  drew  forth 
more  than  a  thousand  millions  of  bullion  into  the  royal  coffers,  it 
was  all  done  by  sw6-treasurers,  while  the  people  were  taxed,  worn 
out,  and  kept  under.  *S?ii-treasurers  are  always  in  favor  of  direct 
taxation,  and  that  is  the  only  way  to  maintain  the  system.  Rome 
was  free  till  the  system  of  52^6-treasury  was  introduced.  So  was 
it  in  Greece.  So  has  it  been  in  every  country  that  has  lost  its 
freedom.  The  peculiarity  of  a  s?i6-treasury  system  is,  to  separate 
the  government  from  the  people,  to  raise  it  above  them,  to  make 
it  independent,  and  to  make  the  people  dependent — slaves.  There 
is  no  sympathy  between  the  parties,  but  a  necessary  and  perpetual 
hostility  of  interests. 

Mr.  Clay  concluded  this  speech — one  of  the  greatest  and  hap- 
piest efforts  of  his  life — as  follows  : — 

"  I  am  admonished,  sir,  by  my  exhausted  strength,  and  by,  I 
fear,  your  more  exhausted  patience,  to  hasten  to  a  close.  Mr. 
President,  a  great,  novel,  and  untried  measure  is  perseveringly 
urged  upon  the  acceptance  of  Congress.  That  it  is  pregnant  with 
tremendous  consequences,  for  good  or  evil,  is  undeniable,  and  ad- 
mitted by  all.  We  firmly  believe  that  it  will  be  fatal  to  the  best 
interests  of  this  country,  and  ultimately  subversive  of  its  liberties. 
You,  who  have  been  greatly  disappointed  in  other  measures  of 
equal  promise,  can  only  hope,  in  the  doubtful  and  uncertain  future, 
that  its  operation  may  prove  salutary.  Since  it  was  first  proposed 
at  the  extra  session,  the  whole  people  have  not  had  an  opportunity 
of  passing  in  judgment  upon  it  at  their  elections.  As  far  as  they 
have,  they  have  expressed  their  unqualified  disapprobation.  From 
Maine  to  the  state  of  Mississippi,  its  condemnation  has  been  loudly 
thundered  forth.  In  every  intervening  election,  the  administration 
has  been  defeated,  or  its  former  majorities  neutralized.  Maine  has 
spoken  ;  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  Ohio,  Rhode  Island, 
Mississippi,  and  Michigan,  all  these  states,  in  tones  and  terms  not 
to  be  misunderstood,  have  denounced  the  measure.  The  key-stone 
state  (God  bless  her)  has  twice  proclaimed  her  rejection  of  it : 
once  at  the  polls,  and  once  through  her  legislature.     Friends  and 


4S  THE    SUB-TREASURY. 

foes  of  the  administration  have  united  in  condemning  it.  And,  at 
the  very  moment  when  I  am  addressing  you,  a  large  meeting  of 
the  late  supporters  of  the  administration,  headed  by  the  dis- 
tinguished gentleman  who  presided  in  the  electoral  college  which 
gave  the  vote  of  that  patriotic  state  to  President  Van  Buren,  are 
assembling  in  Philadelphia,  to  protest  solemnly  against  the  passage 
of  this  bill.  Is  it  right  that,  under  such  circumstances,  it  should 
be  forced  upon  a  reluctant,  but  free  and  intelligent  people  ?  Is  it 
right  that  this  senate,  constituted  as  it  now  is,  should  give  its  sanc- 
tion to  the  measure  ?  I  say  it  in  no  disrespectful  or  taunting  sense, 
but  we  are  entitled,  according  to  the  latest  expressions  of  the  pop- 
ular will,  and  in  virtue  of  manifestations  of  opinion,  deliberately 
expressed  by  state  legislatures,  to  a  vote  of  thirty-five  against  the 
bill  ;  and  I  am  ready  to  enter,  with  any  senator  friendly  to  the 
administration,  into  details  to  prove  the  assertion.  Will  the  senate, 
then,  bring  upon  itself  the  odium  of  passing  this  bill  ?  I  implore 
it  to  forbear,  forbear,  forbear  !  I  appeal  to  the  instructed  senators. 
Is  this  government  made  for  us,  or  for  the  people  and  the  states 
whose  agents  we  are  ?  Are  we  not  bound  so  to  administer  it  as 
to  advance  their  welfare,  promote  their  prosperity,  and  give  genera) 
satisfaction  ?  Will  that  sacred  trust  be  fulfilled,  if  the  known  sen- 
timents of  large  and  respectable  communities  are  despised  and  con- 
temned by  those  whom  they  have  sent  here  ?  I  call  upon  the 
honorable  senator  from  Alabama  [Mr.  King],  with  whom  I  have 
so  long  stood  in  the  public  councils,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  bearing 
up  the  honor  and  the  glory  of  this  great  people,  to  come  now  to 
their  rescue.  I  call  upon  all  the  senators  :  let  us  bury  deep  and 
for  ever  the  character  of  the  partisan,  rise  up  patriots  and  states- 
men, break  the  vile  chains  of  party,  throw  the  fragments  to  the 
winds,  and  feel  the  proud  satisfaction  that  we  have  made  but  a 
small  sacrifice  to  the  paramount  obligations  which  we  owe  oui 
common  country." 

Notwithstanding  the  fixed  and  resolute  purpose  of  Mr.  Van  Bu' 
ren  and  his  advisers,  acting,  as  supposed,  under  the  dictation  ol 
his  predecessor,  or  bound  by  fealty  to  fulfil  pledges  to  that  author- 
ity, the  exposures  made  of  the  novelty  and  dangerous  character 
of  this  great  experiment,  struck  the  public  mind  with  alarm,  and 
for  a  while  held  the  execution  of  the  project  in  suspense.  But, 
as  has  been  seen,  the  abandonment  of  this  object  would  disappoint 
the  plan  and  labor  of  years.  All  that  had  been  done  by  General 
Jackson,  in  breaking  down  the  currency  system  of  the  country, 
was  to  prepare  the  way  for  a  treasury  and  government  bank.  It 
can  not  be  denied,  that  this  course  of  preparation  had  been  to  the 
nation  what  General  Jackson,  in  his  message  of  1835,  allowed  to 
bear    on    public   "  convenience.''''       It    was   in    fact   a  tremendous 


THE    SUB-TREASURY.  40 

ordeal.  Was  the  iron  will  of  the  retired  chieftain  to  be  disap- 
pointed ?  Was  the  mantle  which  he  had  cast  behind  him  on  the 
shoulders  of  his  own  anointed  one,  to  be  torn  off,  and  trampled 
under  foot?  The  pertinacity  with  which  this  great  purpose,  this 
consummation  of  the  work  of  many  years,  this  dear  and  long- 
cherished  scheme,  was  pushed  by  Mr.  Van  Bnren,  to  his  personal 
peril,  to  his  final  ruin,  is  a  striking  exemplification  of  the  functions 
of  an  "  honored  instrument,"  alias  "  tool,"  "  to  carry  out  the 
principles  and  policy"  of  his  predecessor,  to  which  he  had  pub- 
licly and  solemnly  vowed  in  the  acceptance  of  his  nomination  in 
1835.  The  responses  which  came  back  from  the  wide  domain 
of  the  republic,  on  the  full  disclosure  of  this  scheme — the  pre- 
monitory symptoms — were  not  very  encouraging.  Pauses,  vacil- 
lations, fears  were  betrayed,  in  the  mind  of  him  who  had  been 
"the  honored  instrument"  of  thus  shocking  the  mind  of  the  na- 
tion by  a  proposal,  which,  so  far  as  understood,  was  most  remote 
from  meeting  with  approbation.  But  it  was  the  goal  marked  out 
eight  years  before,  to  reach  which,  the  best  interests  of  a  great, 
confiding,  patient  people,  had  been  walked  over  with  iron  heel, 
and  left  trodden  in  the  dust. 

The  scheme,  as  before  seen,  was  first  brought  forward  at  the 
extra  session  of  Congress,  in  1837,  convened  for  that  especial  pur- 
pose, when  it  was  expected  the  bill  would  be  passed,  and  the  de- 
bate was  not  finally  closed  till  1840.  In  .January,  1840,  when 
the  bill  was  about  to  become  a  law,  Mr.  Clay — not  with  any  hope 
of  arresting  the  measure,  for  the  votes  were  marshalled,  and  the 
purpose  sealed — but  to  sustain  his  protest  to  the  last,  and  dis- 
charge his  duty  to  the  country,  delivered  another  speech  upon  ihe 
subject,  recapitulating  his  former  arguments,  and  suggesting  some 
new  thoughts. 

It  was  at  this  session,  that  Mr.  Buchanan,  of  Pennsylvania, 
came  out  with  his  theory  on  the  wages  of  labor.  "  The  gentle- 
man from  Pennsylvania,"  said  Mr.  Clay,  "  has  put  the  case  of 
two  nations,  in  one  of  which  the  amount  of  its  currency  shall  be 
double  what  it  is  in  the  other,  and,  as  he  contends,  the  prices  of 
all  property  will  be  double  in  the  former  nation  of  what  they  are 
in  the  latter."  It  matters  little  in  point  of  justice  to  him  who  pro- 
pounded this  theory,  in  what  form  it  is  set  forth.  The  principle 
and  the  object  can  not  be  disguised.  The  avowed  object  of  the 
administration  and  its  advisers  at  that  time,  was  to  suppress  the 
paper  medium  of  the  country,  and  introduce  a  metallic  currency; 

Vol.  JI.— 4 


50  THE    SUB-TREASURY. 

and  the  independent  or  sub-treasury,  was  to  be  the  means  of  ac- 
complishing the  end,  aUhough,  as  shown  by  Mr.  Clay,  it  must 
necessarily  fail,  and  itself  establish  a  paper  medium  of  a  most 
dangerous  tendency.  As  in  a  sound  paper  currency,  there  is 
allowed  to  be  three  to  one  of  the  specie  basis,  the  suppression  of 
paper  will  reduce  the  amount  of  currency  by  the  proportional  dif- 
ference. It  is  allowed  by  the  theory,  that  every  species  of  prop- 
erty, and  the  wages  of  labor,  must  fall  in  the  same  proportion  ; 
but  its  advocates  say,  that,  when  everything  is  reduced  to  that 
level,  the  difference  is  merely  nominal,  and  it  will  not  only  be 
equally  well,  but  better  for  all  parties. 

There  is,  certainly,  some  plausibility  in  this  theory.  But  the 
difficulty  is  in  reducing  it  to  practice,  because  it  fails  to  consider 
the  relative  position  of  American  capital  and  labor  to  the  labor 
and  capital  of  other  parts  of  the  world,  which  is  illustrated  in  a 
subsequent  chapter.  If  the  reasoning  in  the  place  here  referred  to, 
be  sound,  it  demolishes  this  theory,  and  shows  that  nothing  could 
be  more  alarming  to  the  American  laborer,  nothing  more  fatal  to 
American  freedom,  than  its  proposed  object.  The  high  prices  of 
American  capital  and  labor  are  the  citadel  of  freedom,  and  with 
their  fall,  freedom  falls.  He  who  seeks  to  pull  down  one,  lays 
violent  hands  upon  the  other.  It  was  for  want  of  consideration 
of  this  relation  of  prices  to  freedom,  and  of  freedom  to  despot- 
ism— it  might,  perhaps,  be  added,  an  ignorance  of  political  econ- 
omy— that  proposed  and  advocated  a  measure,  which  was  sup- 
posed and  allowed  to  involve  a  large  reduction — say,  fifty  per 
cent, — in  the  prices  of  American  property,  and  in  the  wages  of 
American  labor.  It  would  be  mild  enough,  because  it  is  exactly 
true,  to  say — it  was  treason  to  the  country ! 

The  following  are  some  of  Mr.  Clay's  thoughts  on  this  point : — 

"  The  proposed  substitution  of  an  exclusive  metallic  currency 
to  the  mixed  medium  with  which  we  have  been  so  long  familiar,  is 
forbidden  by  the  principles  of  eternal  justice.  Assuming  the  cur- 
rency of  the  country  to  consist  of  two  thirds  of  paper  and  one  of 
specie  ;  and  assuming,  also,  that  the  money  of  a  country,  what- 
ever may  be  its  component  parts,  regulates  all  values,  and  expres- 
ses the  true  amount  which  the  debtor  has  to  pay  to  his  creditor, 
the  effect  of  the  change  upon  that  relation,  and  upon  the  property 
of  the  country,  would  be  most  ruinous.  All  property  would  be 
reduced  in  value  to  one  third  of  its  present  nominal  amount,  and 
every  debtor  would,  in  effect,  have  to  pay  three  times  as  much  as 
he  had  contracted  for.     The  pressure  of  our  foreign  debt  would 


THE    SUB-TREASURY.  61 

be  ihree  times  as  great  as  it  is,  while  the  six  hundred  millions, 
which  is  about  the  sum  now  probably  due  to  the  banks  from  the 
people,  would  be  multiplied  into  eighteen  hundred  millions  ! 

"  Have  gentleman  reflected  upon  the  consequences  of  their  sys- 
tem of  depletion  ?  I  have  already  stated,  that  the  country  is 
borne  down  by  a  weight  of  debt.  If  the  currency  be  greatly 
diminished,  as  beyond  all  example  it  has  been,  how  is  this  debt  to 
be  extinguished?  Property,  the  resource  on  which  the  debtor 
relied  for  his  payment,  will  decline  in  value,  and  it  may  happen 
that  a  man,  who  honestly  contracted  debt,  on  the  faith  of  property 
which  had  a  value  at  the  time  fully  adequate  to  warrant  the  debt, 
will  find  himself  stripped  of  all  his  property,  and  his  debt  remain 
unextinguished.  The  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  [Mr.  Bu- 
chanan] has  put  the  case  of  two  nations,  in  one  of  which  the 
amount  of  its  currency  shall  be  double  what  it  is  in  the  other,  and, 
as  he  contends,  the  prices  of  all  property  will  be  double  in  the 
former  nation  of  what  they  are  in  the  latter.  .  If  this  be  true  of 
two  nations,  it  must  be  equally  true  of  one,  whose  circulating  me- 
dium is  at  one  period  double  what  it  is  at  another.  Now,  as  the 
friends  of  the  bill  argue,  we  have  been,  and  yet  are  in  this  infla- 
ted state  ;  our  currency  has  been  double,  or,  in  something  like 
that  proportion,  of  what  was  necessary,  and  we  must  come  down 
to  the  lowest  standard.  Do  they  not  perceive  that  inevitable  ruin 
to  thousands  must  be  the  necessary  consequence  ?  A  man,  for 
example,  owning  property  to  the  value  of  five  thousand  dollars, 
contracts  a  debt  for  five  thousand  dollars.  By  the  reduction  of 
one  half  of  the  currency  of  the  country,  his  property  in  effect  be- 
comes reduced  to  the  value  of  two  thousand  five  hundred  dollars. 
But  his  debt  undergoes  no  corresponding  reduction.  He  gives 
up  all  his  property,  and  remains  still  in  debt  two  thousand  five 
hundred  dollars.  Thus  this  measure  will  operate  on  the  debtor 
.  class  of  the  nation,  always  the  weaker  class,  and  that  which,  for 
that  reason,  most  needs  the  protection  of  government. 

"  But  if  the  effect  of  this  hard-money  policy  upon  the  debtor 
class  be  injurious,  it  is  still  more  disastrous,  if  possible,  on  the  la- 
boring classes.  Enterprise  will  be  checked  or  stopped,  employ- 
ment will  become  difficult,  and  the  poorer  classes  will  be  subject 
to  the  greatest  privations  and  distresses.  Heretofore  it  has  been 
one  of  the  pretensions  and  boasts  of  the  dominant  party,  that  they 
sought  to  elevate  the  poor  by  depriving  the  rich  of  undue  advan- 
tages. Now  their  policy  is,  to  reduce  the  wages  of  labor,  and  this 
is  openly  avowed;  and  it  is  argued  by  them,  that  it  is  necessary 
to  reduce  the  wages  of  American  labor  to  the  low  standard  of  Eu- 
ropean labor,  in  order  to  enable  the  American  manufacturer  to 
enter  into  a  successful  competition  with  the  European  manufac- 
turer in  the  sale  of  their  respective  fabrics.     Thus  is  this  domi- 


52  THE    SUB-TREASURY. 

nant  party  perpetually  changing,  one  day  cajoling  the  poor,  and 
fulminating  against  the  rich  ;  and  the  next,  cajoling  the  rich,  and 
fulminating  against  the  poor.  It  was  but  yesterday  that  we  heard 
that  all  who  were  trading  on  borrowed  capital,  ought  to  break.  It 
was  but  yesterday  we  heard  denounced  the  long-established  policy 
of  the  country,  by  which,  it  was  alleged,  the  poor  were  made 
poorer,  and  the  rich  were  made  richer. 

"  Mr.  President,  of  all  the  subjects  of  national  policy,  not  one 
ouo"ht  to  be  touched  with  so  much  delicacy  as  that  of  the  wages, 
in  other  words,  the  bread,  of  the  poor  man.  In  dwelling,  as  I 
have  often  done,  with  inexpressible  satisfaction  upon  the  many  ad- 
vantages of  our  country,  there  is  not  one  that  has  given  me  more 
delio-ht  than  the  high  price  of  manual  labor.  There  is  not  one 
which  indicates  more  clearly  the  prosperity  of  the  mass  of  the  com- 
munity. In  all  the  features  of  human  society,  there  are  none,  I 
think,  which  more  decisively  display  the  general  welfare,  than  a 
■permanent  high  rate  of  wages,  and  a  pennanent  high  rate  of  inter- 
est. Of  course,  I  do  not  mean  those  excessive  high  rates,  of 
temporary  existence,  which  result  from  sudden  and  unexpected 
demands  for  labor  or  capital,  and  which  may,  and  generally  do, 
evince  some  unnatural  and  extraordinary  state  of  things  ;  but  1 
mean  a  settled,  steady,  and  durable  high  rate  of  wages  of  labor, 
and  interest  upon  money.  Such  a  state  demonstrates  activity  and 
profits  in  all  the  departments  of  business.  It  proves  that  the  employer 
can  afford  to  give  high  wages  to  the  laborer,  in  consequence  of  the 
profits  of  his  business,  and  the  borrower  high  interest  to  the  lender, 
in  consequence  of  the  gain  which  he  makes  by  the  use  of  capital. 
On  the  contrary,  in  countries  where  business  is  dull  and  languish- 
ing, and  all  the  walks  of  society  are  full,  the  small  profits  that  are 
made  will  not  justify  high  interest  or  high  wages." 

The  systematic  and  destructive  attack,  that  was  made  on  the 
commercial  habits  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  by  the  Jack- 
son regime,  as  developed  in  this  and  the  preceding  chapter,  and 
which  remains  yet  more  perfectly  to  be  disclosed — vastly  compre- 
hensive and  fearfully  ruinous  in  its  operations,  entailing  upon  the 
country  at  least  an  age  of  adversity,  however  soon  the  remedy  may 
be  applied — has  raised  a  new  question  in  political  economy  peculiar 
to  the  position  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  their  political 
and  commercial  relations  to  other  parts  of  the  world — more  espe- 
cially to  Europe.  The  secret  of  this  question  has  never  yet  been 
laid  open  to  common  apprehension,  nor,  perhaps,  has  it  been  dis- 
tinctly stated.  In  all  the  debates  which,  for  a  long  course  of  years, 
this  destructive  system,  introduced  by  General. Jackson,  has  exci- 
ted, it  has  been  felt  and  declared,  that  freedom  was  concerned  in 


THE    SUB-TREASURY.  53 

a  policy  that  should  tend  to  depress  the  value  of  property  and  the 
wages  of  labor  ;  but  the  cause,  the  quo  modo,  kow  it  is  concerned, 
how  it  operates,  so  far  as  the  author  of  this  work  has  observed,  has 
never  been  shown.  It  will  be  found  comprehensively  stated  in  the 
twelfth  chapter  of  this  volume;  but,  as  the  application  of  the  prin- 
ciple is  especially  pertinent  here,  and  may  possibly  serve  to  cast 
some  light  on  the  subject  now  under  consideration,  it  is  thought 
proper  to  make  some  use  of  it  in  this  place. 

It  is  suggested  above,  that  it  is  a  question  peculiar  to  the  United 
States.  For  practical  purposes,  statesmen  and  commercial  men 
have  long  felt  its  importance  ;  but  as  a  question  of  political  econ- 
omy, or  science,  it  has  never  been  debated.  The  destructive 
regime,  now  in  view,  has  drawn  it  forward,  and  must  enforce  its 
consideration.  The  fact  of  there  having  been  a  difference  of  prices 
in  European  capital  and  labor,  as  compared  with  those  of  Ameri- 
can capital  and  labor,  was  necessarily  observed,  while  the  cause  or 
causes  have  never  attracted  an  equal  attention.  The  secret  has, 
in  fact,  been  hidden  from  most  minds.  Not  even  statesmen  have 
troubled  themselves  with  it  as  a  question  of  political  economy. 
They  have  indeed  frequently  announced,  that  freedom  was  con- 
cerned in  it  ;  it  was  impossible  they  should  not  see  and  feel  it ; 
but  they  have  never  explained  how  and  why. 

In  the  chapter  above  referred  to,  the  high  prices  of  American 
capital  and  labor,  as  compared  with  those  of  Europe,  are  repre- 
sented as  identical  with  freedom — as  its  own  price  and  prerogativ-e  ; 
that  this  difference  is  not  an  accident,  that  can  disappear,  and  free- 
dom remain  ;  but  that  it  is  essential  to  freedom.  It  is  not  true  to 
say,  that  the  values  of  European  capital  and  labor  are  real,  and 
those  of  the  United  States  fictitious,  though  there  is  a  difference 
of  about  half  between  them.  It  is  the  two  states  of  political  soci- 
ety that  make  the  difference  ;  and  so  long  as  they  remain,  this  dif- 
ference must  remain.  The  wages  of  labor  in  Europe  are  not  fixed 
by  the  laborers.  They  have  no  voice  in  it — are  not  parties  to  the 
arrangement — but  are  compelled  to  work  for  a  bare  subsistence — 
that  being  often  cruelly  and  inhumanly  insufficient.  The  result  is, 
that  the  avails  of  this  cheap  and  forced  labor,  in  every  form  of  its 
products  and  of  wealth,  can  be  afforded  cheaper,  apart  from  the 
heavy  taxes  imposed  upon  them  by  expensive  and  tyrannical  gov- 
ernments ;  and  under  all  these  exactions,  money  capital  in  Europe, 
thus  acquired,  does  not  cost  probably  more  than  half  as  much  as 
money  made  in  the  United  States.     Hence,  six  per  cent,  interest 


51  THE    SUB-TREASURY. 

on  the  latter  capital,  is  only  equal  to  three  per  cent,  on  the  former; 
and  as  the  value  of  money  is  measured  by  the  interest  that  can  be 
obtained  for  it,  it  is  seen,  that  money  in  the  United  States  is  worth 
about  twice  as  much  as  in  Europe.  The  price  of  labor  here  is 
about  three  to  one  of  the  average  price  in  Europe,  because  laborers 
in  the  United  States  have  a  voice  in  determining  their  wages.  The 
terms  are  not — work  at  a  given  price,  or  starve.  If  wages  are  not 
satisfactory  in  one  place,  they  go  to  another  ;  if  not  in  one  calling, 
they  choose  a  second  ;  and  if  no  employer  will  give  enough,  ac- 
cording to  their  estimate  of  their  own  services,  wanting  capital  to 
set  up  for  themselves,  as  a  last  resort  they  can  always  go  to  the 
unseated  lands  of  the  west,  and  be  independent.  There  is  always 
a  virtual  independence  in  their  position,  and  their  labor  is  never 
forced.  Hence,  when  the  labor  of  the  country  is  protected,  it  will 
always  command  a  fair  price — not  only  sufficient  for  subsistence, 
but  to  give  a  chance,  by  frugality  and  economy,  to  rise  in  the  world, 
and  acquire  wealth.  It  is  the  prerogative  of  freedom,  and  identi- 
fied with  it. 

But  this  state  of  things  supposes  an  adequate  protective  system, 
as  is  shown  in  another  part  of  this  work,  and  protection  is  indis- 
pensable to  it.  It  is  shown  elsewhere,  that  an  adequate  protective 
policy  saves  to  the  country  at  least  an  average  of  fifty  per  cent,  of 
the  costs  of  the  articles  protected,  which  is  distributed  among  all 
classes,  one  fraction  of  which  goes  to  reduce  the  prices  of  such 
articles,  another  to  sustain  the  wages  of  labor,  and  so  on.  This 
sustentation  of  the  wages  of  labor  effected  by  a  protective  policy, 
is  the  point  wherein  American  freedom  is  defended  against  the  en- 
croachments of  European  despotism.  The  wages  of  labor  being 
high,  money  and  other  forms  of  wealth  produced  by  labor,  cost 
more  than  in  Europe,  and  are  consequently  worth  more.  The 
value  of  every  species  of  property  is  sustained  by  the  operation  of 
the  same  principle.  It  is  not  unnaturally  high,  but  just  where  it 
ought  to  be,  and  must  be,  as  the  concomitant  of  freedom.  With- 
out a  protective  policy,  prices  would  at  once  go  down  to  the  Euro- 
pean standard,  labor  would  be  oppressed,  and  freedom  lost.  Gov- 
ernments are  expensive  and  oppressive,  all  the  world  over,  just  in 
pro|)ortion  as  the  wages  of  labor  are  below  what  freedom  requires  ; 
and  it  is  when  the  governments  extort,  in  various  modes  of  taxation, 
a  moiety,  more  or  less,  of  the  rightful  property  of  laborers,  that 
they  are  kept  poor,  humiliated,  and  enslaved. 

Assuming  100  as  the  cost  of  American  capital,  and  100  as  the 


THE    SUB-TREASURY.  55 

price  of  American  labor,  under  an  adequate  system  of  protection 
to  both,  the  average  cost  of  European  capital  is  about  67,  and  the 
average  price  of  European  labor  about  33,  as  ascertained  by  the 
best  information.  This  makes  the  joint  value  of  European  capital 
and  labor  100,  and  that  of  American  capital  and  labor  200.  The 
difference,  that  is  to  say,  fifty  per  cent,  goes  into  the  exchequers 
of  European  governments,  by  their  various  modes  of  taxation,  to 
support  the  implements  of  tyranny,  orders  of  nobility,  religious 
establishments,  armies,  navies,  and  all  the  paraphernalia  of  the 
regal  and  monarchical  conditions  of  society.  But  as  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  costs  nothing,  but  is  supported  by  im- 
posts which  constitute  a  properly-adjusted  protective  system,  being 
itself  a  fraction  of  this  moiety  saved  to  the  country  by  the  protective 
policy,  the  other  fraction  saved,  being  the  chief  part  of  it,  all  goes 
to  the  people  directly,  and  is  distributed  among  all  classes,  of  which 
the  laborer  always  gets  his  full  share,  and  is  more  benefited  than 
any  other  class,  first,  by  the  sustentation  of  his  wages,  and  next, 
in  that  he  obtains  the  articles  protected,  which  are  necessary  to 
him,  at  a  cheaper  rate,  because  they  are  rescued  from  foreign  tax- 
ation, and  come  to  him  at  a  fair  price. 

It  will  be  seen,  by  this  view,  that  the  aggregate  costs  of  society, 
capital,  and  labor,  are  just  about  the  same  in  Europe  as  in  Amer- 
^a,  in  one  region  of  civilization  as  in  another.  The  difference  is, 
that  in  Europe,  government  and  its  appurtenances  absorb  a  moiety 
of  the  avails  of  labor,  whereas  in  the  United  States  labor,  under  a 
system  of  adequate  protection,  realizes  its  own  and  full  reward,  as 
the  prerogative  of  freedom.  Here  all  the  expenses  of  the  general 
government  are  defrayed  by  the  operation  of  the  protective  system, 
so  that  the  people  are  relieved  from  this  important  item  of  taxation. 
Here,  by  the  same  means,  money  capital,  and  property  of  every  de- 
scription, maintain  a  freedom  value — a  fair  price — and  every  man 
has  his  rights.  Whereas,  in  Europe,  government  and  its  appen- 
dages are  an  incubus  on  the  bosom  of  the  people.  Money  there 
is  not  worth  more  than  two  thirds  of  its  value  in  the  United  States, 
the  wages  are  not  so  high  by  two  thirds,  and  every  species  ol" 
property  is  alike  encumbered. 

These  brief  remarks  on  this  great  and  important  question,  in 
some  respects  new,  if  not  altogether  so,  as  to  the  principle  involved, 
will  be  seen  to  be  pertinent  in  this  place,  as  they  are  connected 
with  the  wages  of  labor,  the  topic  in  debate  by  Mr.  Clay,  which 
occasioned  this  digression.     It  was  contended  by  Mr.  Buchanan 


56  THE    SUB-TREASURY- 

and  other  opponents  of  Mr.  Clay,  friends  of  the  then  existing  ad- 
ministration, that  the  reduction  of  the  wages  of  lahor  to  which  their 
pohcy  tended,  and  which  must  be  its  inevitable  result,  would  be 
merely  nominal,  and  equally  good  in  the  end.  But  besides  the 
injustice  to  all  debtor  classes,  and  the  ruin  of  many,  as  exhibited 
by  ]Mr.  Clay,  the  direct  tendency  of  the  measures  proposed,  was 
to  identify  the  policy  with  the  European  system,  a  view  of  which 
and  its  operations  are  given  above.  If  the  American  laborer  can 
not  retain  his  wages,  he  loses  his  freedom.  Both  stand  or  fall  to- 
gether. It  is  not  true,  that  the  reduction  of  the  wages  of  labor,  as 
averred,  would  be  merely  nominal.  It  would  be  an  abatement,  a 
destruction  of  its  rights.  The  subject  of  debate  at  this  time  was 
the  currency  question  ;  but  it  will  be  seen,  that  the  wages  of  labor 
are  necessarily  connected  with  the  protective  policy,  and  the  views 
introduced  here  could  not  be  given,  without  recognising  that  rela- 
tion. And  Mr.  Clay,  in  this  debate,  was  forced  to  come  to  a  con- 
sideration of  this  subject,  as  the  following  remarks  will  show  : — 

"  We  are  told  by  the  president  of  the  United  States,  in  his  mes- 
sage at  the  opening  of  the  session,  that  a  great  moneyed  power 
exists  in  London,  that  exerts  a  powerful  influence  on  this  country; 
and  that  it  is  the  result  of  the  credit  system.       *       *       #       * 

"  But,  sir,  we  must  look  to  higher  and  much  more  potent  causes 
than  the  operations  of  any  bank,  foreign  or  domestic,  for  the  lively 
interest  which  is  felt  in  this  country,  in  the  monetary  transactions 
of  England.  In  England,  the  credit  system,  as  it  is  called,  exists 
in  a  much  more  extensive  degree  than  in  this  country;  and,  if  it 
were  true  of  the  nature  of  that  system,  as  is  alleged,  to  render  one 
country  dependent  upon  another,  why  should  not  England  be 
more  dependent  upon  us,  than  we  upon  England"?  The  real 
cause  of  our  dependence  arises  out  of  the  unfavorable  balance  of 
our  foreign  trade.  We  import  too  much,  and  export  too  little. 
We  buy  too  much  abroad,  make  too  little  at  home.  If  we  would 
shake  off  this  degrading  foreign  dependence,  we  must  produce 
more,  or  buy  less.  Increase  our  productions,  in  all  the  variety  of 
forms  in  which  our  industry  can  be  employed;  augment  the  prod- 
ucts of  our  soil,  extend  our  manufactures,  give  new  stimulus  to 
our  tonnage  and  fishing  interests,  sell  more  than  we  buy,  get  out 
of  debt  and  keep  our  of  debt  to  the  foreigner,  and  he  will  no  longer 
exert  an  influence  upon  our  destiny. 

"  And  this  unfavorable  balance  of  our  foreign  trade  is  wholly 
independent  of,  and  unconnected  with,  the  nature  or  the  character 
of  the  currency  of  the  country,  whether  it  be  exclusively  metallic, 
or  mixed  with  paper  and  the  precious  metals.  England,  in  a  great 
measure,  by  means  of  that  credit  or  paper  system,  now  so  much 


THE    SUB-TREASURY.  57 

denounced,  has  become  the  centre  of  the  commerce,  the  exchanges, 
and  the  moneyed  operations  of  the  world.  By  the  extent,  variety, 
and  perfection  of  her  manufactures,  she  lays  most  nations  that 
admit  them  freely,  under  contribution  to  her.  And  if  we  had  no 
currency  but  specie,  we  should  be  just  as  much  exposed  to  the 
moneyed  power  of  London,  or,  which  is  the  true  state  of  the  case, 
to  the  effects  of  an  unfavorable  balance  of  trade,  as  we  now  are. 
We  should  probably  be  more  so,  because  a  large  portion  of  the 
specie  of  the  country  being  in  the  vaults  of  a  few  depositaries,  it 
would  be  easier  then  to  obtain  it  for  exportation,  in  the  operations 
of  commerce,  than  now,  wlien  it  is  dispersed  among  nine  hundred 
or  a  thousand  banks.  Wliat  was  our  condition  during  the  colonial 
state,  when,  with  the  exception  of  small  amounts  of  government 
paper  money,  we  had  no  currency  but  specie,  and  no  banks? 
Were  we  not  constantly  and  largely  in  debt  to  England?  Was 
not  our  specie  perpetually  drained  to  obtain  supplies  of  British 
goods?  Do  you  not  recollect  that  the  subject  of  the  British  debts 
formed  one  of  those  matters  which  were  embraced  in  the  negotia- 
tions and  treaty  of  peace,  which  terminated  the  revolutionary  war? 
And  that  it  was  a  topic  of  angry  and  protracted  discussion  long 
after,  until  it  was  finally  arranged  by  Mr.  Jay's  treaty  of  1794? 

"Look  into  the  works  of  Doctor  Franklin,  in  which  there  is  more 
practical  good  sense  to  be  found,  than  is  to  be  met  with  in  the  same 
compass  anywhere.  He  was  the  agent  of  Pennsylvania,  from 
about  the  middle  of  the  last  century  until  the  breaking  out  of  the 
revolutionary  war,  and  a  part  of  the  time  the  agent,  also,  of  the 
colonies  of  Georgia  and  Massachusetts.  His  correspondence 
shows,  that  the  specie  of  the  colonies  was  constantly  flowing  from 
them  for  the  purchase  of  British  goods,  insomuch  that  the  colonies 
were  left  absolutely  destitute  of  a  local  currency;  and  one  of  the 
main  objects  of  his  agency  was  to  obtain  the  sanction  of  the  parent- 
country  to  those  issues  of  paper  money,  which  the  necessities  of 
Pennsylvania  compelled  her  to  make.  The  issue  was  strenuously 
opposed  by  the  merchants  engaged  in  the  American  trade,  on  ac- 
count of  the  difficulty  which  it  created  in  making  collections  and 
remittances  home.  So  great  was  that  drain  of  specie,  that  we 
know  that  Virginia  and  other  colonies  were  constrained  to  adopt 
tobacco  as  a  substitute  for  money. 

"  The  principal  cause,  therefore,  of  the  influence  of  the  moneyed 
power  of  London  over  this  country,  is  to  be  found  in  the  vast  ex- 
tent of  our  dealings  with  her.  The  true  remedy  is,  to  increase 
our  manufactures  and  purchase  less  of  hers,  and  to  augment  our 
exports  by  all  the  means  in  our  power,  and  to  diminish  our  imports 
as  much  as  possible.  We  must  increase  our  productions,  or  econ- 
omize much  more  than  we  have  done.  New  Jersey,  before  the 
revolution,  being  much  pressed  for  one  hundred  thousand  pounds 
sterling,  Doctor  Franklin  proposed  a  plan,  by  which  she  could  in 


5S  THE    SUB-TREASURY. 

one  year  make  up  that  sum.  The  plan  was  this :  she  was  in  the 
habit  of  importing  annually  from  England  merchandise  to  the 
amount  of  two  hundred  thousand  pounds.  He  recommended  that 
the  ladies  should  buy  only  half  the  amount  of  silks,  calicoes,  teas, 
and  so  forth,  during  the  year,  which  they  had  been  in  the  habit  of 
consuming  ;  and  in  this  way,  by  saving,  the  colony  would  make 
the  required  sum  of  one  hundred  thousand  pounds.  If  we  would, 
for  a  few  years,  import  only  half  the  amount  from  England  that 
we  have  been  in  the  habit  of  doing,  we  should  no  longer  feel  the 
influence  of  the  London  money  power. 

"  What  people  ever  consented  to  increase  their  own  burdens 
unnecessarily?  The  effect  of  this  measure  is,  by  exacting  specie 
exclusively  from  the  people,  and  paying  it  out  to  the  official  corps 
and  the  public  creditor,  to  augment  the  burdens  of  the  people,  and 
to  swell  the  emoluments  of  office.  It  is  an  insult  to  the  under- 
standing and  judgment  of  the  enlightened  people  of  the  United 
States,  to  assert  that  they  can  approve  such  a  measure. 

"  No  true  patriot  can  contemplate  the  course  of  the  party  in  power 
without  the  most  painful  and  mortified  feelings.  They  began  some 
years  ago  their  war  on  the  bank  of  the  United  States.  It  was 
dangerous  to  liberty;  it  had  failed  to  fulfil  the  purposes  of  its  insti- 
tution ;  it  did  not  furnish  a  sound  currency,  although,  the  sun,  in 
all  its  course,  never  shone  upon  a  better.  In  short,  it  was  a  mon- 
ster, which  was  condemned  to  death,  and  it  was  executed  accord- 
ingly. During  the  progress  of  that  war,  the  state  banks  were  the 
constant  theme  of  praise,  in  speech  and  song,  of  the  dominant 
party.  They  were  the  best  institutions  in  the  world,  free  from  all 
danger  to  public  hberty,  capable  of  carrying  on  the  exchanges  of 
the  country,  and  of  performing  the  financial  duties  to  government, 
and  of  supplying  a  far  better  currency  for  the  people  than  the  bank 
of  the  United  States.  We  told  you  that  the  state  banks  would 
not  do,  without  the  co-operation  of  a  bank  of  the  United  States. 
We  told  you  that  you  would  find  them  a  weak  league — a  mere 
fleet  of  open  boats  tied  together  by  a  hickory  withe,  and  which  the 
first  storm  would  disperse  and  upset.  But  you  scorned  all  our 
warnings,  and  continued,  year  after  year,  to  pufF  and  praise  the 
operations  of  these  banks.  You  had  the  boldness,  in  the  face  of 
this  abused  nation,  to  aver  that  the  country  had  been  supplied  by 
them  with  a  better  currency,  and  better  exchanges,  than  it  had 
been  by  the  bank  of  the  United  States.  Well,  by  your  own  meas- 
ures, by  your  treasury  circular,  distribution  of  the  surplus,  and  so 
forth,  you  accelerated  the  catastrophe  of  the  suspension  of  the 
banks.  You  began  with  promises  to  the  people  of  a  better  cur- 
rency, better  times,  more  security  to  civil  liberty;  and  you  end 
with  no  currency  at  all,  the  worst  possible  times,  an  increase  of 
executive  power,  and  a  consequent  increase  of  danger  to  civil  lib- 


THE    SUB-TREASURY.  59 

erty.     You  began  with  promises  to  fill  the  pockets  of  the  people, 
and  you  end  by  emptying  theirs  and  filling  your  own." 

Mr.  Clay  went  on  to  show,  in  more  minute  details,  and  with 
even  more  effective  illustrations,  than  in  his  former  speeches,  that 
the  sub-treasury  scheme  was  the  plan  of  a  treasury-bank,  and  must 
necessarily  operate  as  such,  and  concluded  his  remarks  upon  this 
point,  as  follows  : — 

"  I  know  that  it  has  been  argued,  and  will  be  argued  again,  that 
at  all  times,  since  the  commencement  of  the  government,  the  prac- 
tice of  the  treasury  has  been,  to  issue  its  drafts  upon  the  public 
depositaries  ;  that  these  drafts  have  not  heretofore  circulated  as 
money  ;  and  that  if  they  now  do,  it  is  an  incident  which  attaches 
no  blame  to  the  government. 

"  But  heretofore  these  drafts  were  issued  upon  banks,  and  the 
holders  of  them  passed  to  their  credit  with  the  banks,  or  received 
payment  in  bank-notes.  The  habit  of  the  country — and  habit  was 
a  great  thing — was  to  use  bank-notes.  Moreover,  there  were  bank- 
notes of  every  kind  in  use — those  which  were  local,  and  tliose 
which  were  general,  in  their  credit  and  circulation.  Now,  having 
no  bank  of  the  United  States  in  existence,  there  are  no  bank-notes 
which  maintain  the  same  value,  and  command  the  public  confi- 
dence, throughout  the  Union.  You  create,  therefore,  an  inexora- 
ble necessity  for  the  use  of  government  drafts  as  a  medium  of  gen- 
eral circulation,  and  argue  from  a  state  of  things  when  no  such 
necessity  existed  ! 

"  The  protestation  of  the  friends  of  the  bill  in  this  chamber,  the 
denunciations  of  its  opponents,  and  the  just  hori'or  which  the  peo- 
ple entertain  of  a  government  bank,  may  prompt  the  secretary  of 
the  treasury,  slowly  and  slyly,  to  lift  the  veil  which  masks  its  true 
features.  A  government  bank  may  not  suddenly  burst  upon  us, 
but  there  it  is,  embodied  in  this  bill ;  and  it  is  not  the  least  objec- 
tion to  the  measure,  that  it  depends  upon  the  discretion  of  a  sec- 
retary of  the  treasury  to  retard  or  accelerate  the  commencement 
of  its  operation  at  his  pleasure.  Let  the  re-election  of  the  present 
chief  magistrate  be  secured,  and  you  will  soon  see  the  bank  dis- 
closing its  genuine  character.  But,  thanks  be  to  God,  there  is  a 
day  of  reckoning  at  hand. 

"  There  is  one  man  [Mr.  Van  Buren],  and  I  lament  to  say,  fron^ 
the  current  of  events,  and  the  progress  of  executive  and  party  power, 
but  one  man  at  present  in  the  country,  who  can  bring  relief  to  it, 
and  bind  up  the  bleeding  wounds  of  the  people.  He,  of  all  men 
in  the  nation,  ought  to  feel  as  a  parent  should  feel,  most  sensibly, 
the  distresses  and  sufferings  of  his  family.  But  looking  to  his 
public  course,  and  his  official  acts,  I  am  constrained  to  say,  that 
he  surveys  unconcerned  the  wide-spread  ruin,  and  bankruptcy,  and 


60  THE    SUB-TREASURY. 

wretchedness,  before  him,  without  emotion,  and  without  sympathy. 
While  all  the  elements  of  destruction  are  at  work,  and  the  storm 
is  rafin"-,  the  chief  magistrate,  standing  in  the  midst  of  his  unpro- 
tected fellow-citizens,  on  the  distinguished  position  of  honor  and 
confidence  to  which  their  suffrages  have  devoted  him,  deliberately 
wraps  around  himself  the  folds  of  his  India-rubber  cloak,  and  lift- 
ino-  his  umbrella  over  his  head,  tells  them,  drenched  and  shivering 
as  they  are,  under  the  beating  rain,  and  hail,  and  snow,  falling  upon 
them,  that  he  means  to  take  care  of  himself  and  the  official  corps, 
and  that  they  are  in  the  habit  of  expecting  too  much  from  govern- 
ment, and  must  look  out  for  their  own  shelter,  and  securhy,  and 
salvation  ! 

"  Now,  sir,  put  tliis.  government  bank  into  operation,  and  who 
are  to  be  charged  with  the  administration  of  its  operations  ?  The 
secretary  of  the  treasury,  the  treasurer  of  the  United  States,  the 
register  and  comptroller  of  the  treasury,  and  the  receivers-general, 
and  so  forth — every  one  of  them  holding  his  office  at  the  pleasure 
and  mercy  of  the  president — every  one  of  them,  perhaps,  depend- 
ing for  his  bread  upon  the  will  of  the  president — every  one  of  them 
taught,  by  sad  experience,  to  know  that  his  safest  course  is  to 
mould  his  opinions,  and  shape  his  conduct,  so  as  to  please  the 
president — ev^ery  one  of  them  knowing  perfectly,  that,  if  dismissed, 
he  is  witliout  the  possibility  of  any  remedy  or  redress  whatever. 
In  such  a  deplorable  state  of  things,  this  government  bank  will  be 
the  mere  bank  of  the  president  of  the  United  States.  He  will  be 
the  f  resident,  atsJiier,  a?id  feller.  Yes,  sir,  this  complete  subjec- 
tion of  all  the  sutjordinate  officers  of  the  government  to  the  will  of 
the  president,  will  make  him  sole  director,  president,  cashier,  and 
teller,  of  this  government  bank.  The  so-much-dreaded  union  of 
the  purse  and  the  sword  will  at  last  be  consummated,  and  the 
usurpation,  by  which  the  public  deposites,  in  1S33,  were  removed 
by  the  advancement  of  the  one,  and  the  removal  of  another  sec- 
retary of  the  treasury,  will  not  only  be  finally  legalized  and 
sanctioned,  but  the  enormity  of  the  danger  of  that  precedent  will 
be  transcended  by  a  deliberate  act  of  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  ! 

"  Mr.  President,  for  ten  long  years  we  have  been  warring  against 
the  alarming  growdi  of  executive  power ;  but,  although  we  have 
been  occasionally  cheered,  it  has  been  constandy  advancing,  and 
never  receding.  You  may  talk  as  you  please  about  bank  expan- 
sions. There  has  been  no  pernicious  expansion  in  this  country 
like  that  of  executive  power;  and,  unlike  the  operations  of  banks, 
this  power  never  has  any  periods  of  contraction.  You  may  de- 
nounce, as  you  please,  the  usurpations  of  Congress.  There  has 
been  no  usurpation  but  that  of  the  executive,  which  has  been  both 
of  the  powers  of  other  co-ordinate  departments  of  this  government, 


CURRENCY.  61 

and  of  the  states.  There  scarcely  remains  any  power  In  this 
government  but  that  of  the  president.  He  suggests,  originates, 
controls,  checks  everything.  The  insatiable  spiiit  of  the  iStuarts, 
for  power  and  prerogative,  was  brought  upon  our  American  throne 
on  the  fourth  of  March,  1S29.  It  came  under  all  the  usual  false 
and  hypocritical  pretences  and  disguises,  of  love  of  the  people,  de- 
sire of  reform,  and  diffidence  of  power.  The  Scotch  dynasty 
still  continues.  We  have  had  Charles  the  First,  and  now  we  have 
Charles  the  Second.  But  I  again  thank  God,  that  our  deliverance 
is  not  distant;  and  that,  on  the  4th  of  March,  1841,  a  great  and 
glorious  revolution,  without  blood  and  without  convulsion,  will  be 
achieved." 

This  bill  became  a  law  at  this  (first)  session  of  the  2Gth  Con- 
gress, 1840,  by  a  vote  of  124  to  107  in  the  house  of  representa- 
tives, and  24  to  IS  in  the  Senate  ;  and  one  of  the  first  acts  of  the 
27th  Congress,  elected  with  General  (William  H.)  Harrison,  in 
the  great  political  revolution  of  1840,  was  to  repeal  it,  when  it  had 
been  in  operation  about  a  year.  Nothing  contributed  so  much  to 
the  downfall  of  the  Jackson  regime,  as  the  audacity  of  this 
measure. 

The  importance  of  the  subject  of  currency  seems  to  require 
some  remarks  and  facts,  which  rather  appertain  to  the  functions  of 
a  political  economist,  than  to  the  debates  of  statesmen. 

Money  is  the  medium  of  trade,  or  the  means  by  which  trade  is 
carried  on  ;  currency  is  that  which  passes  for  money,  and,  for 
the  purposes  of  trade,  is  money.  It  is  indispensable  to  the  credit 
of  a  common  currency,  that  it  be  always  convertible  into  specie 
on  demand.  Otherwise,  its  credit  is  instantly  impaired,  and  it 
sinks  just  in  proportion  to  the  doubts  cast  over  the  prospects  of 
redemption — because  gold  and  silver,  weighed  in  the  scales,  and 
assayed  by  common  laws,  are  the  universal  test.  No  legislation 
can  force  credit  into  a  currency  ; — this  truth  is  settled  by  expe- 
rience. Many  governments  have  tried  it,  but  without  avail. 
France  tried  it  in  her  assignats  ;  Great  Britain  has  tried  it  in  va- 
rious modes  ;  America  tried  it  in  continental  money  ;  despots  have 
tried  it ;  but  it  always  fails.  The  reason  is,  that  gold  and  silver, 
weighed,  is  the  only  common  currency  of  the  world.  This  test 
finds  its  way  everywhere,  into  all  countries,  and  to  all  currencies, 
in  spite  of  legislation,  or  the  will  of  despots. 

It  is  an  error  to  suppose,  that  the  value  of  gold  and  silver  con- 
sists in  the  fact,  that  they  are  money.     On  the  contrary,  they  are 


62  CURRENCY. 

appropriated  to  this  use,  on  account  of  their  superior  value  and 
great  demand  for  innumerable  purposes  of  utility,  art,  and  orna- 
ment, arising  from  their  peculiar  and  excellent  qualities.  It  is 
estimated  that  trade  employs  about  one  sixth  or  one  seventh  of  the 
gold  and  silver  in  the  world  in  exchange  as  money.  On  this  ac- 
count there  can  never  be  a  want  of  money,  inasmuch  as  gold 
and  silver,  being  worth  more  for  purposes  of  trade,  than  in  any 
other  use,  they  will  always  come  forth  from  their  other  forms, 
when  trade  invokes  them,  in  a  sufficient  quantity  to  supply  the 
demand.  What  is  commonly  called  scarcity  of  money  arises  from 
improvidence  in  some  quarter.  If  a  country  wants  money,  it 
arises  from  an  inadequate  protective  policy.  The  money  has  gone 
off  to  setde  balances.  The  improvidence  of  an  individual  leads 
to  the  same  result.  It  is  not  because  there  is  not  gold  and  silver 
enough  in  the  world.  There  is  always  some  five  or  six  times 
more  than  the  uses  of  trade  require,  and  if  trade  be  prudently 
managed,  it  will  always  be  at  hand.  Any  party,  whether  an  indi- 
vidual person,  or  a  nation,  that  is  in  the  habit  of  buying  in  excess 
of  sales,  must  expect  a  dearth  of  the  precious  metals. 

The  constitution  of  the  United  States  has  wisely  ordered,  that 
"  no  state  shall  make  anything  but  gold  and  silver  coins  a  tender 
in  payment  of  debts."  The  effect,  and  doubtless  the  design  of 
this  rule,  is,  to  keep  the  way  open  for  the  only  legitimate  test  for 
all  currencies,  viz.,  gold  and  silver,  weighed  in  the  scales.  The 
constitution  itself  goes  no  further  than  the  test  of  coins,  which  is 
imperfect ;  but  the  aim  of  government  in  the  mint  assays,  is  to 
keep  the  coins  as  near  as  possible  to  the  test  of  the  scales,  which 
is  near  enough  for  all  practical  purposes,  though  seldom  exact. 
Sound  policy  would  require,  that  the  legal  coins,  thus  provided, 
should  rather  be  under  than  over  their  nominal  value,  to  bar  ex- 
portation as  an  article  of  trade.  If  in  a  slight  degree  over  their 
nominal  value,  they  will  be  bought  up  and  exported  for  profit,  as 
fast  as  the  mint  turns  them  out.  This  was  the  effect  of  the  gold 
bill  passed  under  the  administration  of  General  Jackson.  An 
affectation  of  being  over-honest  with  the  people,  robbed  the  coun- 
try.    It  was  a  want  of  sagacity. 

Some  aver,  that  the  constitutional  tender,  gold  and  silver  coins, 
is  the  only  constitutional  currency.  This  can  not  be  maintained, 
first,  because  the  rule  itself  grows  out  of  the  fact,  and  is  based 
upon  the  fact,  of  the  existence  and  use  of  other  currencies,  and 
comes  in  to  forbid  that  any  other  currency  should  be  forced  upon 


CURRENCY.  63 

the  public,  by  forcing  it  on  creditors.  So  long  as  the  creditor  may 
lawfully  demand  gold  and  silver  coins  in  payment  of  debts,  his 
rights  are  sufficiently  well  secured.  Secondly,  to  put  an  inter- 
pretation on  the  constitution,  which  was  contrary  to  the  practice 
of  the  time,  and  which  interferes  with  the  necessities  of  society  at 
all  times,  would  be  absurd.  Thirdly,  the  rule,  as  here  interpreted, 
is  all-sufficient,  as  it  leaves  all  currencies  open  to  the  test  of  gold 
and  silver  weighed. 

It  is  further  evident,  that  the  constitutional  tender  was  not  in- 
tended as  an  exclusive  currency,  from  the  fact,  that  no  nation  can 
make  an  exclusive  appropriation  of  the  precious  metals  as  a  cur- 
rency. The  accident  of  a  nation's  stamp  on  the  face  of  a  coin,  is 
nothing  beyond  its  own  jurisdiction.  The  gold  and  silver,  bear- 
ing the  stamp  of  the  American  mint,  is  still  a  currency,  as  truly 
and  equally  good,  all  the  world  over,  as  in  the  United  States. 
The  only  difference  is,  that  in  one  case  it  passes  by  its  stamp,  and 
in  the  other  by  the  scales.  The  moment  an  American  coin  issues 
from  the  mint,  it  is  ever  afterward  the  property  of  him  who  holds 
it  for  the  time  being,  whether  he  be  in  America,  in  Europe,  or 
in  Asia;  and  when  once  it  goes  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
United  States,  it  is  by  no  means  certain  it  will  ever  return  again, 
and  the  chances  are  perhaps  against  it.  The  chief  use — a  very 
important  one — of  the  legal  tender,  is  as  a  secure  and  authorized 
test  of  all  the  currencies  that  may  be  afloat.  This  is  the  practical 
effect  of  the  law,  which  was  doubtless  its  intention,  and  which  is 
as  good  a  protection  of  the  public  against  false  and  spurious  cur- 
rencies, as  society  can  conveniently  furnish.  All  civilized  com- 
munities find  it  necessary,  and  employ  it  as  such. 

A  law  to  establish  an  exclusive  metallic  currency,  would  in 
effect  be  a  law  to  stop  trade — that  is,  the  great  amount  of  it  that  is 
now  carried  on.  The  exchanges  daily  made  in  the  market  and  in 
banks,  if  required  to  be  done  with  gold  and  silver,  would  absorb  a 
large  portion  of  the  industry,  labor,  and  porterage  of  every  com- 
munity, and  in  a  little  while  would  cost  more  than  all  the  money 
there  is  in  the  world — not  to  speak  of  the  risks  of  such  a  mode  of 
business.  The  less  action  of  gold  and  silver  in  trade,  so  much  the 
more  is  saved  to  all  parties.  It  is  only  required  for  small  change, 
and  to  settle  balances  between  remote  points  of  the  commercial 
world.  One  of  the  differences  between  civilization  and  barbar- 
ism, is,  that  credit  characterizes  the  former,  and  barter  the  latter; 
and  the  further  a  nation  advances  in  civilization,  so  much  less  will 


64  cuRREXcr. 

be  the  activit)-  of  the  precious  metals  as  a  currency.  The  great 
art  of  trade  is  to  keep  them  quiet  as  a  basis  ;  and  the  great  art 
of  government  is  to  see  that  they  be  always  on  hand  to  redeem  the 
evidences  of  debt. 

The  system  of  banking  in  the  United  States  is  designed  to  make 
one  dollar  in  specie  answer  the  purposes  of  three,  not  precisely, 
but  as  a  general  rule  ;  and  it  is  perfectly  safe  on  two  contingencies, 
first  and  chiefly,  that  the  protective  policy  of  the  government,  in 
its  regulation  of  foreign  commerce,  be  adequate  to  prevent  balances 
of  trade  falling  against  the  nation ;  and  secondly,  that  the  statutes 
of  incorporation  be  adequate  in  themselves,  and  adequately  en- 
forced, to  prevent  mismanagement  and  fraud.  It  is  supposed,  that 
the  legislatures  have  taken  care,  as  is  their  duty,  so  to  frame  the 
statutes  as  to  secure  the  community,  if  faithfully  observed,  and  it 
is  the  duty  of  the  government  to  see  that  they  are  executed.  A 
sound  banking  system  has  always  a  capital,  including  assets,  in 
excess  of  its  debts,  liable  to  the  claims  of  creditors. 

It  is  by  a  system  of  this  kind,  and  only  by  this,  that  American 
capital  and  labor  can  maintain  its  ground  against  European  capital 
and  labor,  the  latter  costing  only  half  of  the  former,  as  shown  in 
another  chapter.  The  physical  and  moral  capabilities  of  the  Uni- 
ted States,  can  employ  to  advantage  all  the  currency  which  such 
a  system  aiFords,  and  they  can  not  prosper  against  the  rivalship  of 
European  capital  and  labor,  without  it.  Reduce  the  people  of  this 
country  to  a  hard  money  currency,  and  they  are  ruined. 

The  currency  of  a  nation  is  as  blood  to  the  animal  economy. 
Disturb  it,  or  vitiate  it,  or  impair  it,  or  tie  up  its  veins,  or  over- 
charge it,  or  drain  it,  or  dam  up  its  courses,  or  put  clogs  and  tram- 
mels on  its  action,  or  in  any  way  treat  it  rudely  and  unskilfully, 
the  effect  is  precisely  the  same  on  the  health  and  wealth  of  the 
nation,,  as  is  produced  by  a  like  treatment  of  the  vital  current, 
functions,  and  organs  of  the  human  body.  In  all  these  and  other 
forms  of  abuse  and  rudeness,  has  the  currency  of  the  United  States  ' 
been  handled,  as  shown  in  this  and  the  preceding  chapter. 

A  certain  quack  doctor  gave  out  that  a  certain  great  animal  was 
too  plethoric,  and  required  bleeding  ;  but  the  blood  being  precious, 
he  proposed  to  infuse  it  by  injection  into  the  bodies  of  certain  other 
animals  of  the  same  genus.  But  it  only  threw  them  into  a  fever. 
He  then  proposed  to  draw  it  off  again,  and  infuse  it  into  the  veins 
of  the  people.  But  it  gave  the  people  a  fever.  Then  he  thought 
it  would  better  suit  the  bodies  of  the  backwoodsmen,  and  he  gave 


CURRENCY.  65 

it  to  them  by  a  like  process.  But,  unfortunately,  all  the  bodies 
thus  practised  upon,  rather  grew  worse,  and  showed  symptoms  of 
a  fatal  termination.  The  virus,  once  communicated,  became  a 
raging  epidemic.  States  caught  it,  cities  and  villages  caught  it,  all 
manner  of  corporations  caught  it,  individuals  caught  it,  the  whole 
nation  was  seized  of  it,  new  and  artificial  beings  started  into  mush- 
room life,  to  get  a  little  of  the  blood,  and,  after  a  feverish  existence, 
died.  At  last,  the  fever  being  spent,  there  was  a  universal  col- 
lapse, and  all  remedies  failed  to  bring  the  patients  to. 

The  head  of  a  great  house,  saw  the  big  old  St.  Bernard  family 
dog,  in  his  path,  and  cried  out  to  his  boys — "Mad  Dog!" 
Whereupon  the  youngsters  seized  their  rifles,  gave  chase,  and  shot 
him  down.  But  it  turned  out  that  he  was  in  no  wise  mad  at  all, 
and  the  loss  was  grievous.  He  had  been  especially  useful  in  keep- 
ing the  numerous  pack  of  small  dogs  in  order.  The  moment  he 
was  dead,  the  small  curs  broke  loose,  many  of  them  ran  mad  and 
bit  numbers  of  the  family.  One  of  the  family  took  the  carcass  of 
the  old  dog,  and  undertook  to  galvanize  it.  He  jumped  a  little, 
and  then  fell  down,  to  jump  no  more. 

To  drop  figures,  and  come  to  facts.  The  losses  sustained  by 
the  country  in  the  calamitous  vicissitudes,  through  which  it  has 
been  forced,  must  have  been  vast ;  and  the  aggregate  could  not  be 
approached,  but  by  adding  the  results  of  a  prosperity  that  ought 
to  have  been  realized,  to  the  positive  sacrifices  that  have  been  sus- 
tained. Few  persons  are  accustomed  to  reflect  on  the  diversity 
and  extent  of  the  losses  of  those  times.  But,  let  every  man,  who 
lived  through  them,  calculate  for  himself  what  he  personally  sac- 
rificed— what  chances  were  lost  by  him — what  he  might  have  done, 
and  what  he  might  have  been,  if  the  prosperity  of  the  country  had 
not  been  arrested  by  those  fatal  measures — and  he  will  then  be 
better  qualified  to  appreciate  the  private  and  public  calamities  of 
that  period.  Mr.  Clay  states  the  average  depression  in  the  value 
of  property  under  that  state  of  things  which  existed  before  the 
tariff  of  1S24  came  to  the  rescue  of  the  country,  sxjifty  im-  cent. 
The  revulsion  of  1837  produced  a  far  greater  havoc  than  was  ex 
perienced  in  the  period  above-mentioned.  The  ruin  came  quick 
and  fearful.  There  were  few  that  could  save  themselves.  Property 
of  every  description  was  parted  with  at  sacrifices  that  were  as- 
tounding, and  as  for  the  currency,  there  was  scarcely  any  at  all. 
In  some  parts  of  the  interior  of  Pennsylvania,  the  people  were 
obliged  to  divide  bank  notes  into  halves,  quarters,  eighths,  and  so 

Vol.  H.— 5 


J6f#  CURRENCY. 

on,  and  agree  from  necessity  to  use  them  as  money.  In  Ohio, 
with  all  her  abundance,  it  was  hard  to  get  money  to  pay  taxes. 
The  sheriff  of  Muskingum  county,  as  stated  by  the  Guernsey 
Times,  in  the  summer  of  1842,  sold  at  auction  one  four-horse 
wagon,  at  S5  50  ;  10  hogs  at  6 J  cents  each  ;  two  horses  (said  to 
be  worth  from  $50  to  S75  each)  at  $2  each  ;  two  cows  at  $1 
each;  a  barrel  of  sugar  for  SI  50:  and  a  "store  of  goods"  at 
that  rate.  In  Pike  county.  Mo.,  as  stated  by  the  Hannibal  Jour- 
nal, the  sheriff  sold  3  horses  at  SI  50  each;  1  large  ox  at  12^ 
cents  ;  5  cows,  2  steers,  and  1  calf,  the  lot  at  S3  25  ;  20  sheep 
at  13^  cents  each;  24  hogs,  the  lot,  at  25  cents;  1  eight-day 
clock,  at  S2  50  ;  lot  of  tobacco,  7  or  8  hogsheads,  at  $5  ;  3  stacks 
of  hay,  each,  at  25  cents  ;  and  1  stack  of  fodder,  at  25  cents. 

The  United  States  Almanac  stated  the  losses  on  five  descrip- 
tions of  capital,  in  four  years,  from  1837,  as  follows  : — 

Losses  on  bank  circulation  and  deposites $54,000,000 

"         on  bank  capital  failed  and  depreciated 248,000,000 

«         on  State  Stock  depreciated 100,000,000 

"         on  Company  Stocks 80,000,000 

"         on  Real  Estate 300,000,000 

Total  of  these  items,  $782,000,000 

A  writer  of  a  series  of  papers  published  in  New  York,  in  1840, 
entitled,  "  Letters  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  by  CoN- 
civis,"  showing  a  good  deal  of  ability,  and  apparent  labor  of  in- 
vestigation, sums  up  a  catalogue  of  losses  in  the  whole  country, 
for  the  same  period,  as  follows  : — 

Losses  on  wool $20,000,000 

"       on  cotton 130,000,000 

on  srain 150,000,000 

"       on  foreign  merchandise 130,000,000 

"       on  domestic         do 400,000,000 

"       on  capital  vested  in  manufactures 50,000,000 

"       on  capital  vested  in  moneyed  slocks 150,000,000 

"       on  capital  vested  in  slave  labor 400,000,000 

"       on  capital  vested  in  lands 2,500,000,000 

"       on  capital  vested  in  real  estate  in  cities 500,000,000 

"       on  the  price  of  labor  1,500,000,000 

Total • $5,930,000,000 

A  portion  of  this,  it  will  be  seen,  is  a  calculation  of  depression 
of  values  in  permanent  property,  amounting  to  more  than  half  of 
the  aggregate,  which  is  restored,  at  least  in  part,  with  the  revival 
of  prosperity,  and  does  not,  therefore,  belong  to  the  score  of  ab- 
solute and  entire  destruction  ;  though  it  shows  what  would  continue 
as  the  effect,  and  operate  destruction,  without  a  remedy.     In  all 


CURRENCY.  67 

seasons  of  general  adversity  of  this  kind,  however,  a  vast  amount 
of  permanent  property  is  forced  to  change  hands,  and  is  conse- 
quently a  sacrifice  to  individuals,  though  not  to  the  country,  when 
its  value  is  restored.  With  these  abatements,  and  with  all  allow- 
ances for  the  difficulties  of  coming  at  exact  truth — variations  from 
which  being  as  likely  to  fall  on  one  side  as  the  other,  except  in  a 
want  of  fairness — calculations  of  this  kind  lead  to  stupendous 
results,  of  which  this  is  an  instructive  example. 

Government  can  facilitate  or  embarrass,  revive  or  destroy,  the 
ti'ade  of  a  nation,  and  it  is  fair  to  hold  it  responsible  for  unfavorable 
results  in  commerce,  domestic  and  foreign.  The  maxim  of  Mr. 
Van  Buren — "  Let  the  people  take  care  of  themselves,  and  the 
government  take  care  of  itself,"  is  subverting  the  design  of  gov- 
ernment, whose  appropriate  function  is  a  parental  care  of  the  peo- 
ple and  their  interests.  But  this  maxim  destroys  this  parental 
relation,  fosters  unnatural  and  destructive  passions,  and  seems  to 
authorize  rulers  to  prey  on  the  people.  It  is  undoubtedly  true, 
that  the  American  people  will  take  care  of  themselves,  if  the  gov- 
ernment will  let  them.  All  they  require  is  the  protection  of  their 
interests  vested  in  labor,  art,  and  capital,  which  is  one  of  the  chief 
designs  of  the  appointment  of  governing  powers. 


68  REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES. 


CHAPTER  III. 

REMOVAL    OF    THE     DEPOSITES. 

Care  of  the  Public  Funds  committed  by  Law  to  Congress,  and  by  Law  forbidden 
to  the  Executive. — An  Opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court. — The  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  an  Agent  of  Congress,  not  of  the  Executive. — Required  to  make  his 
Report  to  Congress. — The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  reads  a  Lecture  to  Con- 
gress, and  helps  them  out  of  a  difficulty. — An  Employee  that  has  more  Power 
than  his  Principals. — The  Airs  of  an  unrobed  Official. — Mr.  Clay's  Resolutions. 
— Remarks. — A  Revolution. — The  Judiciary  humbled. — The  President  takes 
the  Responsibility. — Mr.  Clay's  Views. — Correspondence  between  General  Jack- 
son and  Mr.  Duane. — The  President  takes  Charge  of  Morals,  &.c. — A  Caesar. 
— Mr.  Duane's  noble  Conduct. 

It  will  not  be  surprising  to  those  who  may  have  read  the  pre- 
ceding parts  of  this  work,  that  the  transaction  indicated  by  the 
head  of  this  chapter,  shoidd  have  been  regarded  as  an  alarming 
usurpation.  When  it  is  considered,  that  one  of  the  prime  and 
most  careful  objects  of  all  free  governments  has  ever  been  to  keep 
the  purse  of  the  state  separate  from  the  sword ;  that  in  whatever 
nation  these  two  powers  have  been  united,  it  has  been  used  for 
purposes  of  despotism  ;  that  the  government  of  the  United  States 
was  carefully  constructed  to  guard  against  it ;  that  all  the  laws 
erecting  and  governing  the  treasury  department  were  framed  ex- 
pressly to  constitute  it  the  agent  of  the  democratic  branch  of  the 
government,  and  make  it  responsible  to  that  branch  alone  ;  that  it 
is  required  to  report  to  that  body,  and  not  to  the  executive  ;  that 
the  treasurer  of  the  United  States,  and  not  the  secretary  of  the 
treasury,  is  by  law  made  the  keeper  of  the  public  funds,  and  re- 
quired to  give  bonds  for  their  security  ;  that  the  treasurer's  duties 
are  clearly  defined  in  the  statute,  as  follows,  "  To  receive  and 
keep  the  moneys  of  the  United  States,  and  to  disburse  the  same, 
upon  warrants  drawn  by  the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  counter- 
signed by  the  comptroller,  recorded  by  the  register,  and  not  oth- 
erwise ;"  that  the  constitution  says,  "  No  money  shall  be  drawn 
from  the  treasury,  but  in  consequence  of  appropriations  made  by 
law,"  that  is,  only  by  the  authority  of  Congress ;  that  the  bank  of 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  69 

the  United  States,  by  the  act  of  its  incorporation,  was  constituted 
the  treasury  of  the  nation  ;  that,  in  consequence  of  these  various 
enactments,  made  from  time  to  time,  creating  the  treasury,  appoint- 
ing its  agents,  and  regulating  its  concerns,  the  president  of  the 
United  States  was  as  effectually  cut  off  from  any  lawful  power  to 
touch  the  public  funds,  or  to  have  any  control  over  them,  as  any 
other  man  in  the  nation,  or  in  the  world,  and  designedly  and  espe- 
cially so,  for  the  reason  that  they  were  intended  to  be  kept  out 
of  his  reach,  on  the  ground  of  a  recognised  principle  of  supreme 
political  importance,  that  the  security  of  public  liberty  required  it; 
and  when,  in  addition  to  these  provisions  of  law,  it  is  considered, 
that,  in  consequence  of  a  disposition  manifested,  on  the  part  of  the 
president,  to  violate  these  obligations,  and  transcend  these  limita- 
tions of  his  authority,  the  house  of  representatives  in  Congress — a 
majority  of  whom  were  his  political  friends — passed  a  resolution, 
in  March,  1833,  by  a  vote  of  110  to  46,  "  That  the  government 
deposites  may,  in  the  opinion  of  the  house,  be  safely  continued  in 
the  bank  of  the  United  States,"  thus  emphatically  expressing  their 
opinion  in  advance,  as  a  rebuke  of  the  purpose,  and  as  an  admo- 
nition against  its  execution  ;  and  when,  in  addition  to  all  this,  it  is 
also  considered,  that  the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  prompted  by 
the  president  himself,  sent  an  agent  to  inquire  as  to  the  safety  of 
the  public  deposites  in  the  bank  of  the  United  States,  who  reported, 
that  they  were  perfectly  safe  ;  and  that,  in  consequence  of  the  en- 
deavors of  the  president,  in  his  official  documents  and  otherwise, 
to  excite  public  distrust  in  the  bank,  a  committee  was  appointed 
by  Congress  to  make  the  same  inquiry,  with  the  same  result ; — it 
can  not  be  denied,  that  these  laws  and  these  facts  ought  to  have 
been  regarded  as  a  very  formidable  barrier  to  the  executive  act  of 
taking  charge  of  these  deposites,  and  removing  them,  notwith- 
standing ! 

To  clear  the  way  for  this  extraordinary  assumption  of  power,  it 
was  necessary,  first,  to  assume,  that  the  secretary  of  the  treasury 
was  an  executive  agent,  challenging  or  overlooking  the  fact,  that  he 
was  constituted  by  law  the  agent  of  the  legislative  branch  of  the 
government.  That,  unfortunately,  according  to  the  practice  of  the 
government — though  it  is  believed  against  the  design  of  the  con- 
stitution— he  held  his  place  at  the  will  of  the  president  by  the 
power  of  removal,  is  true,  as  is  the  case  with  every  public  officer 
that  is  appointed  by  the  co-ordinate  power  of  the  senate,  there  be- 
ing yracticallij  no  co-ordinate  power  in  removing  from  office.     It 


70  REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES. 

should  be  remarked,  however,  that  this  power  of  removal,  as  usu- 
ally exercised  by  the  president,  is  no  further  a  settled  question 
than  by  the  precedent  of  the  casting  vote  of  the  vice-president  in 
the  first  Congress  under  the  constitution,  and  may  therefore  be 
considered  an  open  question. 

The  heads  of  the  departments  of  state,  navy,  and  war,  seem  to 
be  recognised  executive  agents,  and  make  their  reports  directly  to 
the  president.  The  members  of  the  cabinet  are  no  rule  to  deter- 
mine this  question,  as  there  is  no  such  constitutional  body  or  fac- 
ulty, it  being  optional  with  the  president,  who  he  will  have  as  ad- 
visers, or  whether  he  will  have  any ;  though,  as  a  matter  of  pru- 
dence, and  in  respect  for  usage,  he  could  hardly  dispense  with  it. 
General  Jackson  brought  into  his  cabinet  the  attorney-general  and 
postmaster-general,  not  before  practised. 

It  will  be  observed,  that  Mr.  Secretary  Taney,  in  whose  name 
the  deposites  were  removed,  very  properly  addresses  his  report  of 
that  transaction  to  the  Hon.  Andrew  Stevenson,  speaker  of  the 
house  of  representatives,  over  his  signature  of  R.  B.  Taney,  sec- 
retary of  the  treasury.  Though  the  reports  from  that  department 
are  always  made  to  Congress,  there  seems  not  to  have  been  a  uni- 
formity in  the  modes  of  address.  Whether  there  has  been  at  any 
time  a  disposition  to  break  loose  from  that  connexion,  and  form  a 
new  one,  is  not  a  fact  admitting  of  very  clear  evidence.  Mr.  Sec- 
retary Woodbury,  in  1837,  sends  his  report  as  usual  to  Congress, 
but  addresses  it  to  nobody — that  is,  to  no  representative  function- 
ary. It  begins  thus  :  "  In  obedience  to  an  act  supplementary  to 
an  act  to  establish  the  treasury  department,  the  secretary  of  the 
treasury  respectfully  submits  to  Congress  the  following  report." 
Mr.  Secretary  Spencer,  in  1S43,  addresses  his  report  to  the  Hon. 
Willie  P.  Mangurii,  president  of  the  senate,  and  begins:  "Sir:  By 
the  act  of  Congress  approved  May  10,  1800,  it  is  made  the 
DUTY  of  the  secretary  of  the  treasury,"  &c. — a  very  suitable  rec- 
ognition of  the  authority  under  which  he  acted.  This  obvious  re- 
lation, as  developed  in  the  history  of  the  action  of  the  treasury  de- 
partment, corresponds,  as  it  should,  w^ith  the  constitution  and  the 
Jaws,  and  shows,  as  might  be  expected,  that  the  secretary  is  a  min- 
ister of  the  legislature,  and  not  of  the  executive  branch  of  the  gov 
ernment.  The  reasoning  in  the  decision  of  the  supreme  court 
of  the  United  States,  given  in  the  note*  below,  in  the  case  of  Mar- 

•"By  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  the  president  is  invested  with  cer- 
tain important  political  powers,  in  the  exercise  of  which,  he  is  to  use  his  own  dis 
eretion,  and  is  accountable  only  to  his  country  in  his  political  character,  and  to  his 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  71 

bury  and  Madison — making  allowance  for  the  position  of  the  par- 
ties^s  directly  to  this  point,  and  settles  the  principle. 

President  Jackson  inadvertently  betrayed  his  error,  in  the  rea- 
soning he  employed  in  the  paper  read  to  his  cabinet  on  the  18th 
of  September,  1833,  in  justification  of  his  course  :  "  It  is  for  the 
wisdom  of  Congress  to  decide  upon  the  best  substitute  to  be 
adopted  in  the  place  of  the  bank  of  the  United  States.  .  .  .  Al- 
though, according  to  the  frame  and  principle  of  our  government, 
this  decision  would  seem  more  properly  to  belong  to  the  legisla- 
tive power,"  &c.*  So  also  Mr.  Secretary  Taney  in  his  report : 
"  The  power  over  the  place  of  deposite,  would  seem  properly  to 
belong  to  the  legislative  department  of  the  government,  and  it  is 
difficult  to  imagine  why  the  authority  to  withdraw  it  [the  money] 
from  this  bank,  was  confided  exclusively  to  the  executive.  But 
the  terms  of  the  charter  appear  to  be  too  plain  to  admit  of  a 
question."  The  clause  of  the  charter  here  referred  to,  reads  as 
follows  : — 

"  That  the  deposites  of  the  money  of  the  United  States,  in 
places  in  which  the  said  bank  and  branches  thereof  may  be  estab- 
lished, shall  be  made  in  said  bank  or  branches  thereof,  unless  the 
secretary  of  the  treasury  shall  at  any  time  otherwise  order  a7id  di- 
rect ;  in  which  case  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  sliall  immediately 
lay  before  Congress,  if  in  session,  and  if  not,  immediately  after  the 

own  conscience.     To  aid  him  in  the  performance  of  these  duties,  he  is  authorized 

to  appoint  certain  officers,  who  act  by  his  authority,  and  in  conformity  to  his  orders. 

«  »  •  «  *  •"*  » 

'•In  such  cases,  their  acts  are  his  acts;  and  whatever  opinion  may  be  enter- 
tained of  the  manner  in  which  executive  discretion  may  be  used,  still  there  exists, 
and  can  exist,  no  power  to  control  that  discretion.  The  subjects  are  political. 
They  respect  the  nation,  not  individual  rights,  and  being  intrusted  to  the  execu- 
tive, the  decision  of  the  executive  is  conclusive.  The  application  of  this  remark 
will  be  perceived  by  adverting  to  the  act  of  Congress  for  establishing  the  depart- 
ment of  foreign  affairs.  This  officer,  as  his  duties  were  prescribed  by  that  act,  is 
to  conform  precisely  to  the  will  of  the  president.  He  is  the  mere  organ  by  whom 
that  will  is  communicated.  The  acts  of  such  an  officer,  as  an  officer,  can  never 
be  examined  by  the  courts. 

"But  when  the  legislature  proceeds  to  impose  on  that  officer  other  duties; 
when  he  is  directed  peremptorily  to  perform  certain  acts  (that  is,  when  he  is  not 
placed  under  the  direction  of  the  president);  when  the  rights  of  individuals  are 
dependant  on  the  performance  of  those  acts,  he  is  so  far  the  officer  of  the.  law ;  is 
amenable  to  the  laws  for  his  conduct;  and  can  not  at  his  discretion  sport  away  the 
vested  rights  of  others. 

"  The  conclusion  from  this  reasoning  is,  that  where  the  heads  of  departments 
are  the  political  or  confidential  agents  of  the  executive,  merely  to  execute  the  will 
of  the  president,  or  rather  to  act  in  cases  in  which  the  executive  possesses  a  con- 
stitutional or  legal  discretion,  nothing  can  be  more  perfectly  clear  than  that  their 
acts  are  only  politically  examinable.  But  where  a  specific  duty  is  assigned  by 
law,  and  individual  rights  depend  upon  the  performance  of  that  duty,  it  seems 
equally  clear  that  the  individual  who  considers  himself  injured,  has  a  right  to 
resort  to  the  laws  of  his  country  for  a  remedy." 

*  For  the  entire  document,  see  Niles's  Register,  vol.  xlv.,  p.  73. 


72  REMOVAI.    OF     THE    DEPOSITES. 

commencemcrtt  of  the  next  session,  the  reasons  of  such  order  or 
direction." 

The  words  in  italics  are  all  the  authority  there  was  for  removing 
the  deposites  ;  and  every  one  will  see,  that  the  common  sense  in- 
terpretation of  such  phraseology,  in  such  connexion,  was  to  au- 
thorize the  secretary,  as  the  minister  of  Congress,  on  a  sudden 
emergency  of  peril  to  the  public  funds — it  being  his  place  and  duty 
to  know  about  that — to  take  instant  steps  for  their  security,  in 
which  he  would  of  course  be  approved.  Such  a  discretion  might 
perhaps,  in  some  cases,  be  extended  further;  but  it  would  be  haz- 
ardous, and  the  secretary  would  doubtless  first  satisfy  himself,  that 
he  could  render  a  satifactory  account  to  his  employers,  whose 
agent  he  was.  He  was  required  by  the  same  law  "  immediately 
to  lay  before  Congress,  if  in  session,  and  if  not,  immediately 
after  the  commencement  of  the  next  session,  the  reasons  of  such 
order  or  direction."  As  much  as  to  say,  for  the  safety  of  the  pub- 
lic funds,  such  may  sometimes  be  a  necessary,  though  it  is  a  high, 
discretion,  and  should  be  explained  and  defended — the  case  sup- 
posed would  be  its  own  defence — "  immediately." 

It  will  be  observed,  that  Mr.  Secretary  Taney  does  not  make 
his  report  in  the  name  of  "  the  president  of  the  United  States,"  as 
is  the  style  of  the  secretary  of  state — in  all  his  official  transactions — 
the  latter  being  an  executive  agent — but  Mr.  Taney  does  it  in  his 
own  name — with  what  propriety,  except  in  conformity  to  law  and 
usage,  may  be  questionable,  in  view  of  the  following  facts  :  The 
president,  in  the  paper  read  to  his  cabinet  on  the  18th  of  Septem- 
ber, says — "  The  president  again  repeats,  that  he  begs  his  cabinet 
to  consider  the  proposed  measure  as  his  own.  .  ".  Its  respon- 
sibility HAS  BEEN  ASSUMED,"  On  the  20th  of  September, 
his  decision  was  authoritatively  announced,  and  the  first  of  Octo- 
ber was  fixed  as  the  day  of  execution  ;  on  the  23d  Mr.  Duane 
was  dismissed  from  the  office  of  secretary  of  the  treasury,  because 
he  refused  to  execute  the  order,  and  Mr.  Taney  was  put  in  his 
place  to  do  what  Mr.  Duane  refused  to  do.  But  Mr.  Taney,  in 
his  report  to  Congress,  gives  not  a  word  of  this  history,  but  ap- 
pears there  with  all  the  responsibility  on  his  own  shoulders.  The 
president  vanishes  out  of  sight,  and  the  agent  of  Congress  affects 
to  give  a  faithful  and  true  account,  "  immediately,"  as  the  law 
directs,  "  after  the  coiumencement  of  the  next  session,"  of  the  use 
of  his  high  discretion.  The  law  requires  that  he  should  give  the 
"  REASONS."     Accordingly  Congress  is  instructed  and  edified — 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  73 

not  with  a  statement  of  the  "  reasons,"  however — but  with  an 
exposition  of  law,  and  sundry  alleged  facts.  He  comes  boldly 
forward,  and  says  :  "  I  have  directed" — not,  I  was  directed  by  the 
president.  He  informs  Congress,  that  they  had  made  an  impru- 
dent contract  with  the  bank  of  the  United  States  ;  but,  by  a  more 
fortunate  blunder,  they  had  conveyed  to  him,  their  agent,  more 
power  than  they,  as  principals,  possessed ;  that,  by  virtue  of  this 
power,  he  had  come  to  their  rescue;  that,  "it  is  difficult  to  im- 
agine" how  this  could  be,  but  nevertheless  so  it  was  ;  that  they, 
Congress,  could  not  withdraw  the  deposites,  but  he,  their  agent, 
could  ;  that  the  covenant  between  the  stockholders  of  the  bank 
and  Congress,  is  one  thing,  and  that  between  the  stockholders  and 
the  agent  of  Congress,  another  thing ;  that  by  the  former.  Con- 
gress were  in  a  difficulty,  and  by  the  latter  they  were  helped  out  of 
it ;  that,  although  the  principals  could  not  act  in  this  matter,  their 
agent  could  do  all  that  was  necessary ;  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
agent,  in  the  absence  of  such  power  in  his  principals,  to  take  care 
of  their  interests ;  that  the  obligation  to  assign  the  reasons  "  of 
his  conduct,"  can  not  be  regarded  as  a  restriction  of  his  power, 
which,  he  says,  is  "  absolute  and  unconditional ;"  that  the  presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  is  "  required  to  take  care  that  the  laws 
be  faithfully  executed  ;"  that  his  [the  secretary's]  responsibility  is 
to  the  executive  [not  true],  and  hence  his  power  over  the  subject; 
that  "  the  terms  of  the  charter  [giving  this  power]  are  too  plain  to 
admit  of  a  question  ;"  that  "  it  is  the  duty  of  the  secretary  of  the 
treasury  to  withdraw  the  deposites,  whenever  the  change  would,  in 
any  degree,  promote  the  public  interest" — he  being  judge  ;  that  "  it 
is  not  necessary,  that  the  deposites  should  be  unsafe,  in  order  tO/ 
justify  the  removal ;"  that  "  the  general  interests  and  convenience, 
of  the  people,  must  regulate  his  [the  secretary's]  conduct ;"  that 
he  would  otherwise  "betray  the  trust  confided  in  him;"  that  Mr.. 
Secretary  Crawford  acted  on  this  principle  in  1817  ;  that  there  is 
no  difference  between  a  part  of  a  thing  and  the  whole  ;  "  that  the 
power  of  removal  was  inte7idcd  to  be  reserved  exclvsivchj  to  the 
secretary  of  the  treasury  ;"  that  "  it  is  the  duty  of  the  executive 
departments  to  exercise  the  powers  conferred  on  them  ;"  that 
the  question  of  bank  or  no  bank,  was  "  argued  on  both  sides  be- 
fore the  tribunal  of  the  people,  and  their  verdict  was  pronounced 
against  the  bank;"  that  "it  was,  therefore,  his  duty  to  act  upon 
the  assumption,  that  this  corporation  would  not  continue  ;"  that  he: 
"  could  only  inquire  what  would  most  conduce  to  the  public  good  ;'* 


74  REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES. 

that  "  it  was  obvious  the  interests  of  the  country  would  not  be 
promoted"  by  the  other  alternative  ;  that  "  the  ability  of  the  bank 
under  such  circumstances,  might  be  well  doubted  ;"  that  the  bank 
owed  its  credit  to  the  government,  not  to  itself;  that  the  state  banks 
would  be  as  good  as  the  bank  of  the  United  States ;  that  the  ques- 
tion of  removal  was  one  of  time  only  ;  that  he,  the  secretary, 
would  have  done  it  sooner,  if  it  had  been  with  him  to  determine ; 
that,  on  tlie  whole,  it  had  happened  just  about  the  right  time,  for 
"  the  public  interest ;"  that  the  recent  conduct  of  the  bank,  in 
swelling  its  loans,  augured  no  good,  but  was  very  alarming ;  that 
its  arbitrary  contractions  were  oppressive  ;  that,  "  under  other  cir- 
cumstances," he,  the  secretary,  "  would  have  been  disposed"  to 
allow  this  business  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  Congress,  though  he 
was  under  no  obligations  to  do  so  ;  that  he  "  should  have  preferred 
executing  the  measure  in  a  manner  that  would  have  enabled  the 
legislature  to  act  on  the  subject,  but  the  bank  left  him  no  choice ;" 
that,  "  the  power  of  removal  being  reserved  exclusively  to  the  sec- 
retary of  the  treasury,  his  action  was  necessary  to  effect  it ;"  that 
"  it  could  not  have  been  postponed  to  a  later  day,  without  injury 
to  the  country ;"  that  the  bank  had  violated  its  duty,  and  forfeited 
its  rights,  by  seeking  to  obtain  political  power ;  that,  to  conceal 
its  designs,  it  had  established  a  governing  power,  not  known  in  the 
charter ;  that,  since  such  criminal  transactions  can  not  be  froved^ 
they  ought  to  be  presumed ;  that  the  bank  had  agreed  to  pay  a 
public  debt,  and  had  only  assumed  it ;  that  it  had  charged  the  usual 
amount  of  damages  for  the  non-payment  of  the  French  indemni- 
ties, but  had  made  too  much  money  by  it  in  the  use  of  its  own 
facilities  ;  that  the  bank  had  undertaken  to  defend  itself  against 
the  hostility  of  the  government,  by  diffusing  information  ;  that  the 
liberties  of  the  people  were  thereby  endangered  ;  that  the  bank 
had  no  right  to  defend  itself;  that  it  had  "  endeavored  to  defeat 
the  election  of  those  who  were  opposed  to  its  view's  ;"  that  "  it  is 
a  fixed  principle  of  our  political  institutions  to  guard  against  the 
unnecessary  accumulation  of  power;"  that  the  bank  is  unconsti- 
tutional ;  and  that,  therefore,  he,  the  secretary,  had  felt  it  his  duty 
to  withdraw  the  public  deposites  from  the  bank  of  the  United 
States.  Although  some  liberty  has  been  taken,  as  to  the  form  of 
these  statements,  and  to  strip  them  of  cumbrous  and  artful  verbiage, 
for  the  sake  of  brevity,  it  is  believed,  that  the  ideas  and  principles 
they  suggest,  are  fsiirly  derived  from  the  document,  in  connexion 
with  other  historical  facts.* 

•  See  Niles's  Register,  vol.  xlv.,  p.  258. 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  7^ 

Thus  was  it  proved,  that  Congress  was  not  the  master  of  Its 
employee  (an  employee,  by-the-by,  thrust  upon  them),  but  that 
the  employee  was  master  of  Congress;  that  the  principals  had  less 
power  than  their  agent,  were  indebted  to  him  for  protection,  and 
for  coming  to  their  rescue,  when  they  were  involved  in  difficulty 
by  their  own  want  of  foresight.  They  were  also  indebted  to  him 
for  this  lucid  definition  of  their  own  position  and  his,  and  for  his 
able  expo-ition  of  the  various  points  of  constitutional  and  other 
law  involved  in  the  case.  It  is  true,  the  secretary  says  nothing 
about  BY  WHOM,  HOW,  AND  WHEREFORE,  he  Came  into  that  po- 
sition ;  how  long  he  had  been  there  when  the  deposites  were  re- 
moved ;  whether  he  was  active  or  passive  in  that  transaction ; 
for  how  could  that  concern  those  who  had  all  the  benefit?  Besides, 
as  he  was  an  agent  of  the  law,  for  form's  sake,  there  must  needs 
be  an  appearance  of  conformity  to  law.  Therefore  he  speaks 
in  his  own  name,  as  if  he  had  really  done  this  thing!  True,  there 
was  an  apparent  want  of  modesty  in  one — who  had  come  so  re- 
cently upon  this  theatre,  who  had  not  even  appeared  upon  the 
stage  till  after  the  business  was  all  settled,  who  had  not  the  slight- 
est degree  of  experience  in  this  vocation,  who  was  unknown  to  his 
employers,  whose  name  had  not  even  been  sent  in  to  them,  who 
was  therefore  yet  uninvested  with  his  official  robes — to  come  before 
them  with  such  airs  of  authority  and  power!  On  the  14th  of 
March  following,  Mr.  Clay  said  in  the  senate:  "We  are  now  in 
the  fifth  month  of  the  session;  and  in  defiance  of  the  sense  of  the 
country,  and  in  contempt  of  the  participation  of  the  senate  in  the 
appointing  power,  the  president  has  not  yet  deigned  to  submit  the 
nomination  of  his  secretary  to  the  consideration  of  the  senate. 
8ir,  I  have  not  looked  into  the  official  record;  but,  from  the  habit- 
ual practice  of  every  previous  president,  from  the  deference  and 
respect  which  they  all  maintained  toward  a  coordinate  branch  of 
the  government,  I  venture  to  say,  that  a  parallel  case  is  not  to  be 
found."  Congress  might  well  have  said  to  this  unknown  person- 
age— "  Who  are  you,  sir? — who  sent  you  here  ?"  But  the  farce  at 
the  end  of  a  play  is  too  important  a  part  of  the  entertainment  to 
be  spoiled  by  such  impertinent  interrogatories;  and  it  does  not 
appear  that  there  was  any  interruption. 

As  this  report  of  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  was  before  Con- 
gress, it  must  needs  be  the  subject  of  some  notice.  Accordingly, 
on  the  26th  of  December,  1833,  Mr.  Clay  offered  to  the  senate 
the  following  resolutions  : — 


76  REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES. 

*  Resolved,  That  by  dismissing  the  late  secretary  of  the  treasury, 
because  he  would  not,  contrary  to  his  sense  of  his  own  duty,  re- 
move the  money  of  the  United  States  in  deposite  with  the  Ijank  of 
the  United  States  and  its  branches,  in  conformity  with  the  presi- 
dent's opinion,  and  by  appointing  his  successor  to  effect  such 
removal,  which  has  been  done,  the  president  has  assumed  the  exer- 
cise of  a  power  over  the  treasury  of  the  United  States  not  granted 
to  him  by  the  constitution  and  laws,  and  dangerous  to  the  liberties 
of  the  people. 

'^Resolved,  That  the  reasons  assigned  by  the  secretary  of  the 
treasury  for  the  removal  of  the  money  of  the  United  States,  de- 
posited in  the  bank  of  the  United  States  and  its  branches,  commu- 
nicated to  Congress  on  the  third  of  December,  1833,  are  unsatis- 
factory and  insufficient." 

It  was,  in  the  first  place,  fit,  that  Mr.  Clay  should  be  the  mover 
of  these  resolutions.  His  position  entitled  him  to  the  honor,  and 
his  moral  intrepidity  qualified  him  for  the  duty.  It  is  needless  to 
inquire  whether  any  other  member  of  the  senate  would  have  done 
it,  if  he  had  not^  A  majority  were  ready  to  support  him,  as  the 
result  proved.  The  time  had  come,  when,  if  any  virtue  remained 
in  the  republic  akin  to  that  which  established  it,  a  stand  was  to  be 
taken  for  liberty.  The  main  bulwark  of  freedom,  to  wit,  the  cus- 
tody and  independent  control  of  the  public  purse,  in  the  hands  of 
the  democratic  branch  of  the  government,  had,  within  six  months, 
been  broken  down,  the  funds  of  the  nation  seized  and  put  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  constitutional  keepers.  It  had  been  done  in  con- 
tempt of  the  special  action  of  the  house  of  representatives  on  the 
subject,  at  the  previous  session  of  Congress,  in  the  shape  of  a 
resolution  passed  for  the  express  purpose  of  deprecating  and  pre- 
venting this  violence  to  the  constitution  and  to  public  liberty.  The 
twenty-second  Congress  had  adjourned,  on  the  3d  of  March,  1833, 
having  the  day  before  recorded  their  opinion  and  their  mandate, 
deciding — so  far  as  they  had  authcrity  and  control  in  the  case, 
both  of  which  were  independent  and  absolute — that  the  public 
funds  should  remain  where  thev  were,  and  that  there  was  no  cause 
of  removal ;  and  the  twenty-third  Congress  assembled  in  Decem- 
ber of  the  same  year,  to  find,  that  the  public  funds  had,  notwith- 
standing, been  abstracted  !  that  they  had  neither  penny,  nor  purse  ! 
that  the  constitution  which  had  put  both  into  their  hands,  and  bid 
them  keep  and  use  them  at  their  discretion,  was  a  mere  nullity! 
Even  if  there  had  been  a  question  as  to  the  expediency  of  the  vote 
of  the  house,  March  2,  1833,  in  a  financial  point  of  view ;   if  the 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  77 

public  funds  had  been  in  jeopardy,  no  patriot  would  hesitate  to 
say,  better  lose  them   all,  and   much    more — any  amount — than 
allow  the  constitution  to  be  trampled  in  the  dust.     But  the  funds 
were  not  in  jeopardy.     The  secretary — more  properly  the  man 
who  was  put  forward  as  the  instrument  to  do  this  deed,  for  Mr. 
Taney  was  never  a  secretary  of  the  treasury,  but  a  mere  locum 
tenais  foisted  into  that  place  for  an  unlawful  object — Mr.  Taney 
never  pretended  that  he  removed  the  deposites,  because  he  deemed 
them  unsafe.     On  the  contrary,  knowing  that  they  were  perfectly 
safe,  as  the  house  of  representatives  had  declared,  he  says  in  his 
report,   "  It  is  not  necessary  that  the  deposites  should  be  unsafe,  in 
order  to  justify  the  removal."      The  violation  of  the  constitution, 
therefore,  in  thus  contemning  the  authority  and  mandate  of  the  only 
constitutional  keepers  of  the  public  funds,  was  flagrant.     And  it 
was  the  more  alarming,  because  it  was  not  a  mistake — a  venial 
error — but  a  naked  and  meditated  usurpation.     It  was  done  in  the 
face  of  a  protest ;  for  no  one  will  pretend  to  say,  that  the  resolu- 
tion of  the  house  of  representatives,  of  the  2d  of  March,  1833, 
declaring   the   public  deposites  safe  in  the  bank  of  the   United 
States,  was  not  a  protest  in  advance.     The  president,  everybody, 
knew  that  such  was  the  intention  and  character  of  that  transaction. 
It  was,  therefore,  against  a  remonstrance  made  by  a  party  that  was 
bound  to  make  it,  that  the  public  purse  was  seized,  and  wrested 
from  its  constitutional  custody ;  and  as  such,  it  was  a  very  grave 
matter.     It  was  an  issue  made  by  force  and  intention. 

Unless,  therefore,  the  democratic  branch  of  the  government  was 
prepared  to  surrender  at  discretion  ;  unless  the  only  lawful  keep- 
ers of  the  public  funds,  having  been  ravished,  were  so  destitute  of 
virtue,  as  to  say,  "  we  give  up,"  there  was  no  alternative  but  to 
record  their  opinion  of  this  affair,  and  to  renew  their  protest 
against  this  invasion  of  their  appropriate  domain — this  violation  of 
their  rights — this  obstruction  to  their  high  and  paramount  duties. 

In  this  position  of  this  and  other  questions  between  the  demo- 
cratic and  executive  branches  of  the  government,  when  the  latter 
was  rapidly  absorbing  all  the  powers  of  both,  it  will  be  obvious, 
that,  if  a  firm  stand  had  not  been  taken  at  this  time  against  these 
encroachments,  it  might  soon  have  been  too  late.  If  any  should 
say,'  the  result  proves,  that  the  apprehensions  then  felt  were 
groundless,  it  may  be  answered,  that  the  result  rather  demonstrates 
the  contrary.  Notwithstanding  all  that  was  done  to  check  the 
advance  of  regal  power,  it  continued  to  increase,  with  even  more 


78  REMOVAL    OF    THE     DEP03ITES. 

alarming  strides,  till  both  houses  of  Congress  were  brought  under 
its  feet,  and  made  subservient  to  its  will ;  and  it  was  not  till  a 
complete  revolution  was  proposed,  for  abolishing  the  old  militia 
system,  and  substituting  an  enrolled  army  of  two  hundred  thousand 
men,  to  be  under  command  of  the  president,  together  with  the 
project  of  confining  all  banking  operations  of  the  country  to  the 
secretary  of  the  federal  treasury,  that  the  eyes  of  the  people  were 
opened,  and  they  rose  in  1840  to  break  the  bands  that  had  been 
forged  for  their  subjection.  It  is  fair  to  conclude,  that  the  reason 
why  these  abuses  of  power  did  not  proceed  to  greater  extremities, 
was,  because  there  was  a  determination  in  the  democratic  branch 
of  the  government,  to  assert  and  vindicate  its  own  independent  and 
constitutional  rights.  Though  the  resolutions  at  this  time  pending, 
and  finally  passed  in  substance,  were  afterward  exjnaiged,  when 
regal  power  was  high  in  the  ascendant,  it  was  nevertheless  a  con- 
servative stand,  and  was  doubtless  one  of  the  means  of  the  final 
rescue. 

When  Mr.  Clay  rose  in  support  of  the  resolutions  above  cited, 
be  said  in  the  most  solemn  manner : — 

"  We  are  in  the  midst  of  a  revolution,  hitherto  bloodless,  but 
rapidly  tending  toward  a  total  change  of  the  pure  republican  charac- 
ter of  the  government,  and  to  the  concentration  of  all  power  in  the 
hands  of  one  man.  The  powers  of  Congress  are  paralyzed,  except 
when  exerted  in  conformity  with  his  will,  by  frequent  and  ar 
extraordinary  exercise  of  the  executive  veto,  not  anticipated  by  the 
founders  of  our  constitution,  and  not  practised  by  any  of  the 
predecessors  of  the  present  chief  magistrate.  And,  to  cramp  them 
still  more,  a  new  expedient  is  springing  into  use,  of  withholding 
altogether  bills  which  have  received  the  sanction  of  both  houses  of 
Congress,  thereby  cutting  off  all  opportunity  of  passing  them,  even 
if,  after  their  return,  the  members  should  be  unanimous  in  their 
favor.  The  constitutional  participation  of  the  senate  in  the  ap- 
pointing power  is  virtually  abolished  by  the  constant  use  of  the 
power  of  removal  from  office,  without  any  known  cause,  and  by 
the  appointment  of  the  same  individual  to  the  same  office,  after  his 
rejection  by  the  senate.  How  often  have  we,  senators,  felt  that  the 
check  of  the  senate,  instead  of  being,  as  the  constitution  intended, 
a  salutary  control,  was  an  idle  ceremony?  How  often,  when  act- 
ing on  the  case  of  the  nominated  successor,  have  we  felt  the  in- 
justice of  the  removal"?  How  often  have  we  said  to  each  other, 
well,  what  can  we  do?  The  office  can  not  remain  vacant,  without 
prejudice  to  the  public  interest,  and  if  we  reject  the  proposed  sub- 
stitute, we  can  not  restore  the  displaced ;  and,  perhaps,  some  more 
unworthy  man  may  be  nominated." 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  79 

It  will  be  seen,  that  the  above-cited  paragraph  comprehends  a 
variety  of  topics.  The  usurpations  of  the  executive  were  not  con- 
fined to  the  removal  of  the  deposites,  against  the  will  and  orders 
of  their  rightful  keepers,  but  they  were  branching  out  in  all  direc- 
tions. "  We  are  in  the  midst  of  a  revolution,"  said  Mr.  Clay. 
Executive  vetoes  ;  the  unprecedented  practice  of  pocketing  bills 
remitted  from  Congress,  after  having  been  passed,  for  the  sanction 
of  the  president,  and  thus  barring  the  legislature  from  the  consti- 
tutional right  of  acting  upon  them,  if  vetoed,  and  passing  them  by 
a  vote  of  two  thirds,  if  they  could  ;  the  arbitrary  removals  from 
office,  and  arbitrary  appointments,  without  consulting  the  co-ordi- 
nate power,  for  the  very  purpose  of  robbing  that  power  of  the 
chance  of  using  its  constitutional  prerogative — a  practice  which 
could  easily  be  made  to  answer  any  and  the  worst  designs  of  a 
despot ; — these  high  and  regal  powers,  in  their  various  ramifica- 
tions— especially  the  latter,  which,  in  its  practical  operation,  was 
the  most  objectionable  and  most  alarming  of  all — were  not  simply 
stealing,  but  had  stolen,  their  march  on  the  democratic  platform 
of  the  constitution,  and  wrested  from  the  democratic  branch  of  the 
government  its  rightful  claims.  The  bank  of  the  United  States, 
against  the  paramount — or  what  ought  to  have  been  the  paramount 
— will  of  this  branch  of  the  government,  had  been  destroyed  ; 
the  land  bill,  which  was  so  much  in  favor  with  the  democratic 
branch,  that  it  would  have  passed  by  two  thirds  in  both  houses, 
against  a  veto,  was  unlawfully  retained,  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
controlling  this  result ;  removals  from  office  were  constantly  being 
made,  and  substitutes  thrust  into  their  places,  to  thwart  "the  ad- 
vice and  consent  of  the  senate,"  and  accomplish  the  regal  designs 
of  the  executive  ;  and  to  crown  all,  the  secretary  of  the  treasury, 
the  employee  of  Congress,  had  been  forced  to  retire,  by  executive 
mandate,  because  his  conscience  would  not  allow  him  to  disobey 
the  orders  of  his  principals,  and  a  man  of  easier  conscience  was 
put  forward,  without  investiture,  to  violate  the  constitution  of  the 
country  ! 

But  this  was  not  all.     Mr.  Clay  went  on  to  say  : — 

"  The  judiciary  has  not  been  exempt  from  the  prevailing  rage 
for  innovation.  Decisions  of  the  tribunals,  deliberately  pro- 
nounced, have  been  contemptuously  disregarded,  and  the  sanctity 
of  numerous  treaties  openly  violated.  Our  Indian  relations,  coe- 
val with  the  existence  of  the  government,  and  recognised  and 
established  by  numerous  laws  and  treaties,  have  been  subverted,  the 


1I> 


80  REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES. 

rights  of  the  helpless  and  unfortunate  aborigines  trampled  in  the 
dust,  and  they  brought  under  subjection  to  unknown  laws,  in 
which  they  have  no  voice,  promulgated  in  an  unknown  language. 
The  most  extensive  and  most  valuable  public  domain  that  ever  fell 
to  the  lot  of  one  nation,  is  threatened  with  a  total  sacrifice.  The 
general  currency  of  the  country — the  life-blood  of  all  its  business — 
is  in  the  most  imn)inent  danger  of  universal  disorder  and  confu- 
sion. The  power  of  internal-  improvement  lies  crushed  beneath 
the  veto.  The  system  of  protection  of  American  industry  was 
snatched  from  impending  destruction,  at  the  last  session ;  but  we 
are  now  coolly  told  by  the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  without  a 
blush,  'that  it  is  understood  to  be  covccJcd  on  all  hands,  that  the 
tariff  for  protection  merely  is  to  be  finally  abandoned.'  By  the 
third  of  March,  1837,  if  the  progress  of  innovation  continues, 
there  will  be  scarcely  a  vestige  remaining  of  the  government  and 
its  policy,  as  they  existed  prior  to  the  third  of  March,  1829.  In 
a  term  of  eight  years,  a  litde  more  than  equal  to  that  which  was 
required  to  establish  our  liberties,  the  government  will  have  been 
transformed  into  an  elective  monarchy — the  worst  of  all  forms  of 
government. 

"  Such  is  a  melancholy  but  faithful  picture  of  the  present  condi- 
tion of  our  public  affairs.  It  is  not  sketched  or  exhibited  to  excite, 
here  or  elsewhere,  irritated  feeling.  I  have  no  such  purpose.  I 
would,  on  the  contrary,  implore  the  senate  and  the  people  to  dis- 
card all  passion  and  prejudice,  and  to  look  calmly,  but  resolutely, 
upon  the  actual  state  of  the  constitution  and  the  country.  Although 
I  bring  into  the  senate  the  same  unabated  spirit,  and  the  same  firm 
determination  which  have  ever  guided  me  in  the  support  of  civil 
liberty,  and  the  defence  of  our  constitution,  I  contemplate  the  pros- 
pect before  us  with  feelings  of  deep  humiliation  and  profound  mor- 
tification. 

"It  is  not  among  the  least  unfortunate  symptoms  of  the  times, 
that  a  large  portion  of  the  good  and  enlightened  men  of  the  Union, 
of  all  parties,  are  yielding  to  sentiments  of  despondency.  There 
is,  unhappily,  a  feeling  of  distrust  and  insecurity  pervading  the 
community.  Many  of  our  best  citizens  entertain  serious  appre- 
hensions, that  our  Union  and  our  institutions  are  destined  to  a 
speedy  overthrow.  Sir,  I  trust  that  the  hopes  and  confidence  of  the 
country  will  revive.  There  is  much  occasion  for  manly  independ- 
ence and  patriotic  vigor,  but  none  for  despair.  Thank  God,  we 
are  yet  free ;  and,  if  we  put  on  the  chains  which  are  forging  for  us, 
it  will  be  because  we  deserve  to  wear  them.  We  should  never 
despair  of  the  republic.  If  our  ancestors  had  been  capable  of 
surrendering  themselves  to  such  ignoble  sentiments,  our  independ- 
ence and  our  liberties  would  never  have  been  achieved.  The 
winter  of  1776-7  was  one  of  the  gloomiest  periods  of  the  revo- 
lution ;  but  on  this  day,  fifty-seven  years  ago,  the  father  of  his 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  81 

country  achieved  a  glorious  victory,  which  diffused  joy  and  glad- 
ness and  animation  throughout  the  states.  Let  us  cherish  the  hope 
that,  since  he  has  gone  from  among  us.  Providence,  in  the  dispen- 
sation of  his  mercies,  has  near  at  iiand  in  reserve  for  us,  though 
yet  unseen  by  us,  some  sure  and  happy  deliverance  from  all  im- 
pending dangers. 

"  When  we  assembled  here  last  year,  we  were  full  of  dreadful 
forebodings.  On  the  one  hand  we  were  menaced  with  a  civil  war, 
which,  lighting  up  in  a  single  state,  might  spread  its  flames  tlirough- 
out  one  of  the  largest  sections  of  the  Union.  On  the  other,  a 
cherished  system  of  policy,  essential  to  the  successful  prosecution 
of  the  industry  of  our  countrymen,  was  exposed  to  imminent  dan- 
ger of  immediate  destruction.  Means  were  happily  applied  by 
Congress  to  avert  both  calamities;  the  country  was  reconciled,  and 
our  Union  once  more  became  a  band  of  friends  and  brothers.  And 
I  shall  be  greatly  disappointed,  if  we  do  not  find  those  who  were 
denounced  as  being  unfriendly  to  the  continuance  of  our  confed- 
eracy, among  the  foremost  to  fly  to  its  preservation,  and  to  resist  all 
executive  encroachment. 

"Mr.  President,  when  Congress  adjourned,  at  the  termination 
of  the  last  session,  there  was  one  remnant  of  its  powers,  that  over 
the  purse,  left  untouched.  The  two  most  important  powers  of  civil 
government  are,  those  of  the  sword  and  the  purse.  The  first,  with 
some  restriction,  is  confided  by  the  constitution  to  the  executive, 
and  the  last  to  the  legislative  department.  If  they  are  separate,  and 
exercised  by  different  responsible  departments,  civil  liberty  i.^  safe; 
but  if  they  are  united  in  the  hands  of  the  same  individual,  it  is 
gone.  That  clear-sighted  and  sagacious  revolutionary  orator  and 
patriot,  Patrick  Henry,  justly  said,  in  the  Virginia  convention,  in 
reply  to  one  of  his  opponents:  'Let  him  candidly  tell  me  where 
and  when  did  freedom  exist,  when  the  sword  and  purse  were  given 
up  from  the  people?  Unless  a  miracle  in  human  affairs  interposed, 
no  nation  ever  retained  its  liberty  after  the  loss  of  the  sword  and 
the  purse?  Can  you  prove  by  any  argumentative  deduction,  that 
it  is  possible  to  be  safe  without  one  of  them?  If  you  give  them 
up,  you  are  gone.'  " 

General  Jackson,  having  made  up  his  mind  to  usurp  the  charge 
of  die  purse  of  the  nation,  after  various  pretences  of  taking  advice, 
called  a  meeting  of  his  cabinet  on  the  18th  of  September,  1833, 
and  read  to  them  a  paper  declaratory  of  that  purpose,  in  which  he 
said  :  "  The  president  begs  his  cabinet  to  consider  the  proposed 
measure  as  his  own,  in  the  support  of  which  he  shall  require  no 
one  of  them  to  make  a  sacrifice  of  opinion  or  principle.  Its  re- 
sponsibility HAS  BEEN  ASSUMED." 

But  there  was  a  difficulty,  in  the  way — more  than  one,  indeed. 

Vol.  11.-6 


82  REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES. 

If  the  deed  were  not  done  forthwitli,  the  debate  that  might  arise, 
and  the  expressions  of  pubhc  opinion,  might  become  formidable. 
It  was,  therefore,  resolved,  that  it  should  be  done  the  first  day  of 
October,  then  ensuing.  But  Mr.  Duane,  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  had  scruples.  He  could  not  be  persuaded  to  such  a 
violation  of  law.  His  feelings  were  known  to  the  president,  when 
this  document  was  read,  and  one  of  its  purposes,  if  not  its  chief 
one,  was  as  a  hint  to  the  secretary,  that  he  must  do  it,  or  retire. 
It  was  no  doubt  understood,  at  the  moment,  between  the  parties 
concerned,  that  Mr.  Taney,  then  attorney-general,  and  member  of 
the  cabinet,  would  become  the  willing  instrument  of  executing  the 
president's  designs.  Mr.  Duane,  however,  desirous  of  saving 
General  Jackson  from  such  responsibility,  if  indeed  he  could  hope 
to  put  a  bar  in  the  way  of  his  will,  declined  throwing  up  his  com- 
mission, and  resolved  to  remain  passive,  notwithstanding  he  had 
once  given  the  president  to  understand,  that,  if  he  could  not  com- 
ply with  his  wishes,  he  would  vacate  his  place. 

It  should  be  observed,  that  this  document,  read  to  the  cabinet 
on  the  ISth  of  September,  was  apparently  an  official  one,  though 
altogether  novel  in  its  character  and  place.  That  it  did  not  come 
within  the  range  of  the  president's  constitutional  functions,  is  clear 
enough,  since,  as  shown,  the  treasury  was  by  law  purposely  put 
beyond  his  reach.  The  inhibition  against  his  putting  his  hand  into 
the  treasury,  or  having  anything  to  do  with  it  officially,  was  more 
especially  directed  against  him,  than  against  any  officer  or  citizen 
of  the  republic,  because  danger  did  not  arise  so  much  from  other 
quarters  as  from  this.  These  laws  were  made  chiefly  with  the 
design  of  keeping  the  purse  and  the  sword  for  ever  asunder — of 
barring  the  end  which  was  arrived  at  by  this  single  and  bold  step. 
It  was  not  a  gradual  insinuation,  in  the  manner  of  the  usual  advan- 
ces of  unlawful  power — but  one  leap,  one  bound,  by  which  the 
president  seized  on  the  treasury  of  the  nation,  and  took  charge  of 
it.  He  knew  that  it  was  then,  or  never.  Congress,  aware  that 
such  a  purpose  was  entertained  in  that  quarter,  had,  in  the  action 
of  one  of  its  branches,  by  a  decisive  vote,  thrown  out  an  admoni- 
tion to  the  executive  to  beware  ;  and  in  about  sixty  days  from  the 
time  fixed  to  commit  the  deed,  Congress  would  be  again  in 
session,  and  probably  disposed  to  protest  most  solemnly  against 
such  an  infraction  of  the  constitution,  and  such  a  violation  of  their 
rights. 

But  was  this  anomalous  document,  of  the  1  Sth  of  September, 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  S3 

official  ?  If  the  act  announced,  and  apparently  authorized  by  it, 
was  unlawful,  how  could  it  be  official  ?  Clearly,  it  must  necessa- 
rily fall  within  one  of  two  categories — an  official  transaction,  or  a 
bald  usurpation.  If  official,  Congress  had  a  right  to  an  officially 
certified  copy,  whenever  demanded,  except  for  temporary  reasons 
of  expediency,  existing  in  the  breast  of  the  president,  against  a 
present  publication.  But  it  had  already  been  published,  as  ema- 
nating from  that  source. 

On  the  11th  of  December,  the  senate,  thinking  it  incumbent 
upon  them  to  take  this  business  of  a  violated  treasury  in  hand,  and 
justly  considering  that  this  document,  occupying  so  important  a 
position,  was  indispensable  to  a  full  understanding  of  the  subject, 
and  ought  to  be  officially  communicated  to  Congress,  if  the  trans- 
action was  official,  made  a  respectful  call  on  the  president,  as  is 
usual  when  either  branch  of  Congress  thinks  it  has  occasion  for  an 
executive  paper;  and  on  the  next  day  received  a  message  from  the 
president,  declining  to  comply  with  the  request.  It  will  be  seen, 
that  this  refusal  was,  either  a  disrespect  to  the  senate,  and  a  viola- 
tion of  usage  in  the  intercourse  between  these  two  branches  of  the 
government,  or  a  tacit  confession,  that  the  act  of  removing  the 
deposites  was  a  usurpation,  and  as  such,  would  be  managed  by 
the  same  will  which  had  originated  and  executed  the  measure. 
That  the  president  was  not  reluctant  to  show  a  disrespect  to  the 
senate,  was  perhaps  true  ;  but  it  will  naturally  be  surmised,  that, 
in  addition  to  this,  he  intended  to  take  higher  ground,  and  to  inti- 
mate to  the  senate,  that  this  was  a  matter  which  did  not  concern 
them.  Of  course,  then,  it  was  a  usurpation.  For,  down  to  the 
1st  of  October,  1833,  the  care  of  the  treasury  and  of  the  public 
funds,  had,  by  provisions  of  law,  been  in  charge  of  the  democratic 
branch  of  the  government,  and  nothing  but  an  unlawful  act  could 
wrest  them  from  that  custody. 

But  the  conference  held  by  the  president  with  his  cabinet,  on  the 
18th  of  September,  had  two  remarkable  features  :  one  an  appear- 
ance of  asking  counsel,  in  the  words  which  announced  that  all  the 
responsibility  was  assumed  by  the  executive.  Having  resolved  on 
an  aiiio  dafe,  he  convoked  an  assembly  of  officials  to  witness  the 
sacrifice  !  But  he  had  before  privately  consulted  these  dignita- 
ries, all  of  whom  were  doubtless  sensible  of  the  enormity  of  the 
proposed  measure  ;  but  the  majority  had  found  reasons  to  assent. 
The  most  remarkable  feature  of  this  consultation  is,  that  it  was 
asking  advice  o^  executive  officers,  whether  he  should  take  in  charge 


84  REMOVAL    OF    THE     DEPOSITES. 

the  business  of  another  branch  of  the  government,  and  endeavoring 
to  obtain  their  countenance  and  support.  He  asked  the  opinion 
of  the  secretary  of  war  as  to  the  duties  of  the  secretary  of  the  treas- 
ury, and  so  on,  round  the  circle.  It  is  obvious,  that  he  might  with 
equal  propriety  have  solicited  their  opinion  as  to  the  duties  of  the 
secretary  of  the  senate,  or  of  the  sergeant-at-arms  of  the  house  of 
representatives,  with  a  view  to  issue  his  orders  to  those  employees 
of  the  democratic  branch,  since  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  sus- 
tained precisely  the  same  relation  to  Congress,  though  of  a  differ- 
ent denomination,  and  having  his  own  specific  duties  prescribed  by 
laws  of  Congress.  The  latter  was  none  the  less  an  agent  of  that 
body,  than  the  two  former — not  less  amenable  to  it,  nor  less  sub- 
ject to  their  orders.  In  this  view,  the  cabinet  meeting  on  the  1 8th 
of  September,  was,  indeed,  a  remarkable  spectacle.  They  were 
obliged  to  hear  a  decision  pronounced,  which  humiliated  them- 
selves, and  humiliated  the  nation  :  "  The  president  begs  his  cabi- 
net to  consider  the  proposed  measure  as  his  own.  Its  responsibility 
is  assumed.''''  He  had  endeavored  to  obtain  unanimity,  failed,  and 
now  assembled  them,  to  say,  he  would  do  it  on  his  own  account. 

The  following  are  remarks  of  Mr.  Clay,  on  this  stage  of  the 
transaction  : — 

"  Sir,  is  there  a  senator  here  who  will  tell  me  that  this  removal 
was  not  made  by  the  president?  1  know,  indeed,  that  there  are 
in  this  document  many  of  those  most  mild,  most  gracious,  most 
condescending  expressions,  with  which  power  too  well  knows  how 
to  clothe  its  mandates.  The  president  coaxes,  he  soothes  the 
secretary,  in  the  most  bland  and  conciliating  language  : — 

"  '  In  the  remarks  he  has  made  on  this  all-important  question, 
he  trusts  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  will  see  only  the  frank  and 
respectful  declarations  of  the  opinions  which  the  president  has 
formed  on  a  measure  of  great  national  interest,  deeply  affecting  the 
character  and  usefulness  of  his  administration  :  and  not  a  sjjirit  oj 
.dictation,  which  the  president  would  be  as  cartful  to  avoid,  as 
ready  to  resist.  Happy  will  he  be,  if  the  facts  now  disclosed  pro- 
duce uniformity  of  opinion  and  unity  of  action  among  the  mem- 
bers of  the  administration.' 

"  '  Sir,  how  kind  !  how  gentle  !  How  very  gracious  must  this 
have  sounded  in  the  gratified  ear  of  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  I 
Sir,  it  reminds  me  of  an  historical  anecdote,  related  of  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  characters  which  our  species  has  ever  produced. 
While  Oliver  Cromwell  was  contending  for  the  mastery  of  Great 
Britain,  or  Ireland  (I  do  not  now  remember  which),  he  besieged 
a  certain  catholic  town.  The  place  made  a  stout  resistance  ;  but 
at  length  the  town  being  likely  to  be  taken,  the  poor  catholics  pro- 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  85 

posed  terms  of  capitulation,  stipulating  therein  for  the  toleration 
of  their  religion.  The  paper  containing  the  terms  was  brought  to 
Oliver,  who,  putting  on  his  spectacles  to  read  it,  cried  out :  '  Oh, 
granted,  granted,  certainly  ;'  he  added,  however,  '  but  if  one  of 
them  shall  dare  to  be  found  attending  mass,  he  shall  be  hanged.' 
Under  what  section  is  not  mentioned — whether  under  a  second,  or 
any  other  section  of  any  particular  law,  we  are  not  told. 

"  Thus,  sir,  the  secretary  was  told  by  the  president,  that  he  had 
not  the  slightest  wish  to  dictate — oh,  no  ;  nothing  is  further  from 
the  president's  intention  ;  but,  sir,  what  was  he  told  in  the  sequel? 
'  If  you  do  not  comply  with  my  wishes — if  you  do  not  effect  the 
removal  of  these  deposites  within  the  period  I  assign  you — you 
must  quit  your  office.'  And  what,  sir,  was  the  effect  ?  This 
document  bears  date  on  the  eighteenth  of  September.  In  the 
official  paper,  published  at  the  seat  of  government,  and  through 
which  it  is  understood  that  the  government  makes  known  its 
wishes  and  purposes  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  we  were 
told,  under  date  of  the  twentieth  of  September,  1833,  two  days 
only  after  tliis  cabinet  paper  was  read,  as  follows  : — 

"  '  We  are  authorized  to  state' — [avtkorized — this  is  the  word 
which  gave  credit  to  this  annunciation] — '  We  are  authorized  to 
state,  that  the  deposites  of  the  public  money  will  be  changed  from 
the  bank  of  the  United  States  to  the  state  banks,  as  soon  as  neces- 
sary arrangements  can  be  made  for  that  purpose  ;  and  that  it  is 
believed  they  can  be  completed  in  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  New 
York,  and  Boston,  in  time  to  make  the  change  by  the  first  of  Oc- 
tober, and  pcrhajis  sooner,  if  circumstances  should  render  an  ear- 
lier action  necessary  on  the  part  of  the  government.' 

"  Yes,  sir,  on  the  eighteenth  of  September  this  measure  was 
decided  on  ;  and  on  the  twentieth,  it  is  announced  to  the  people, 
that  the  deposites  would  be  removed  by  the  first  of  October,  or 
sooner,  if  practicable.  Mr.  Duane  was  continued  in  office  till 
the  twenty-third,  on  which  day  he  was  dismissed  ;  and  between 
the  twenty-third  and  the  twenty-sixth,  on  which  latter  day  the 
mere  clerical  act  of  signing  the  order  for  removal  was  performed, 
Mr.  Taney,  by  whom  it  was  done,  was  appointed  secretary  of  the 
treasury,  having  conformed  to  the  will  of  the  president,  against  his 
own  duty,  v.hlch  Mr.  Duane  would  not  do.  Yes,  sir,  on  the 
twentieth  went  forth  this  proclamation,  by  authority,  of  the  removal 
of  the  deposites,  although  Mr.  Duane  remained  in  office  till  the 
twenty-third.  On  this  point  we  have  conclusive  proof  in  a  letter 
of  the  president  to  that  gentleman,  dated  on  the  twenty-third,  which 
letter,  after  ail  the  gracious,  friendly,  and  conciliating  language  of 
the  cabinet  paper,  concludes  in  these  terms : — 

"  '  I  feel  constrained  to  notify  you,  that  your  further  services  as 
secretary  of  the  treasury  are  no  longer  required.' 

"  Such,  Mr.  I'resident,  is  the  testimony  on  the  one  side  to  prove 


iPj  REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES. 

the  truth  of  the  proposition,  that  the  removal  of  the  deposites  from 
the  bank  of  the  United  States,  was  a  measure  determined  on  by 
the  president  himself — determined  on  while  the  latter  secretary  of 
the  treasury  was  still  in  office,  and  against  the  will  of  the  secretary  ; 
and  although  Mr.  Taney  may  have  put  his  signature  to  the  order 
on  the  twenty-sixth — a  mere  ministerial  act,  done  in  conformity 
with  the  previous  decision  of  the  president — that  the  removal 
should  take  place  on  or  before  the  first  of  October. 

"  I  now  call  the  attention  of  the  senate  to  testimony  of  the  other 
party — I  mean  Mr.  Duane.  After  giving  a  history  of  the  circum- 
stances which  accompanied  his  appointment  to  office,  and  what 
passed  antecedently  to  his  removal,  he  proceeds  to  say  : — 

"  '  Thus  was  I  thrust  into  office ;  thus  was  I  thrust  from  office  ; 
not  because  I  had  neglected  any  duty  ;  not  because  I  had  differed 
with  him  about  the  bank  of  the  United  States ;  but  because  I 
refused,  without  further  inquiry  by  Congress,  to  remove  the 
deposites !' 

"  Can  testimony  be  more  complete  to  establish  the  proposition 
I  have  advanced  ?  And  is  it  possible — after  the  testimony  of  the 
president  on  one  side,  and  of  his  secretary  on  the  other,  that  the 
former  had  decided  that  the  deposites  should  be  removed,  and  had 
removed  the  secretary  because  he  would  not  do  it — that  any  man 
can  doubt  that  the  removal  was  the  president's  own  act"? — that  it 
was  done  in  accordance  with  his  command?" 

Mr.  Duane's  address  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  from 
Philadelphia,  of  December  2,  1833,  with  the  correspondence 
between  himself  and  the  president,  pending  their  debate  on  the 
removal  of  the  deposites,  which  terminated  in  Mr.  Duane's  dismissal 
fiom  office,  is  deemed  of  sufficient  importance  and  interest  for  a 
place  here,  and  will  be  found  in  the  note  below.*     It  will  doubt- 

•  TO    THE    PEOPLE   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

Fellow-Citizens  :  I  announced  on  the  20th  ultimo,  that,  at  an  early  day,  I 
v.-ould  appear  before  you,  at  least  to  repel  imputations  cast  upon  my  character, 
contained  in  a  publication  in  the  Globe,  the  official  paper  of  the  executive,  of  the 
preceding  day.  If  the  calumnious  attack  referred  to,  had  not  been  obviously  sanc- 
tioned by  tlie  president  of  the  United  States,  such  is  the  character  of  the  newspa- 
per under  his  protection,  that  I  should  not  have  felt  myself  called  upon  to  notice 
it.  In  addressing  you,  I  have  hesitated  between  the  adoption  of  a  general  expo- 
sition, and  of  a  brief  defensive  address,  accompanied  by  that  part  of"  the  corres- 
pondence between  tlie  president  and  myself,  which  the  official  paper  seems  to  have 
clialleni'cd  me  to  produce.  I  adopt  the  latter  course.  In  the  correspondence  you 
will  find  ample  materials  for  the  accurate  comprehension  of  my  case — one  of  in- 
sult and  oppression. 

On  the  14th  of  December,  1832,  without  any  solicitation  on  my  part,  I  was  un- 
expectedly invited  to  accept  the  office  of  secretary  of  the  treasury.  I  sought  to 
shun  the  station,  did  not  consent  to  serve,  until  asked  for  my  decision  on  the  30th 
of  January,  and  then  consented  reluctantly.  No  doubt,  subsequently  to,  as  be- 
fore, the  adjournment  of  Congress,  si)eculators,  for  their  own  selfish  ends,  agita- 
ted the  deposite  question,  and  kept  up  an  excitement  felt  by  the  president;  but  it 
was  never  intimated  to  me,  that  he  desired  to  concentrate  in  himself  the  power  to 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  87 

less  be  felt,  that  it  places  Mr.  Duane  in  a  high  and  proud  position, 
besides  that  it  sheds  a  light  on  this  point  of  the  political  history 
of  the  country,  which  could  not  be  derived  from  any  other  quar- 

judge  and  execute — to  absorb  the  discretion  given  to  the  secretary  of  the  treasury 
—and  even  to  nullify  the  law  itself.  I  never  heard,  until  after  my  entry  into  of- 
fice, that  he  meant  to  remove  the  deposites,  without  further  inquiry  by  Congress, 
or  that  he  had  asked  the  opinion  ol'  the  members  of  the  cabinet  on  the  subject. 
On  the  contrary,  when,  after  having  entered  the  treasury  department,  unpledged, 
untrammelled,  and  unsuspicious,  I  was  informed  of  what  was  meditated,  I  felt 
surprise  at  the  intelligence,  and  mortification  at  the  manner  in  which  it  was  com- 
municated to  me.  On  the  3d  of  June,  the  president  himself  made  known  to  me 
what  was  in  contemplation,  and  that  he  had  taken  the  opinions  of  the  members  of 
the  cabinet  on  the  point — two  of  whom  concurred  with  him,  two  of  whom  did  not 
concur,  and  the  fifth  had  not  yet  given  a  written  opinion.  He  said  he  would  sub- 
mit to  me  the  written  opinions  of  the  four  members  of  the  cabinet,  with  his  own 
views,  and  that  he  would  expect  me  to  give  him  my  opinion  frankly  and  fully.  As 
if  to  urge  me  to  avoid  all  reserve,  he  assured  me,  in  a  letter,  dated  Boston,  June 
26,  transmitting  the  opinions  and  views,  that  "  it  was  not  his  intention  to  inter- 
fere with  the  independent  exercise  of  the  discretion  committed  to  me  by  law  over 
this  subject." 

But  when,  on  the  10th  July,  I  gave  my  opinion  frankly  and  fully,  as  an  licnest 
minister  and  man  should  do,  there  was  every  return  but  that  of  approbation.  On 
the  22d  of  July  I  was  asked,  whether  it  was  my  intention  to  refuse  to  remove  the 
deposites,  if,  after  inquiry  by  an  agent,  and  advisement  with  the  cabinet,  the  pres- 
ident should  decide  to  remove  them,  as,  in  such  a  case,  "  it  would  become  his  duty, 
in  frankness  and  candor,  to  suggest  the  course,  that  would  be  necessary  on  his 
part." 

Not  on  my  own  account,  but  as  an  act  of  duty  to  the  country,  I  now  subjected 
my  pride  and  feelings  to  restraint,  by  tendering,  in  order  to  avert  a  present  hostile 
breach,  a  future  surrender  of  my  post,  in  case  I  should  not  ultimately  concur 
with  the  president.  But  before  my  concurrence  or  nonconcurrence  was  made 
known,  and  while  I  still  held  in  my  hands  the  manuscript  exposition,  which  was 
read  in  the  cabinet  on  the  18th  of  September,  and  then  delivered  to  me  by  the 
president  for  my  consideration,  he  virtually  dismissed  me  as  an  officer,  and  insulted 
me  as  a  man,  by  causing  the  official  communication,  hereto  appended  (No.  1),  to 
be  published  in  the  Globe  on  the  20th  of  September. 

Yet,  after  this,  when  it  must  have  been  obvious,  that,  independently  of  other 
considerations  of  great  weight,  I  was  absolved  from  all  respect  for  any  past  assu- 
rance, my  letter  (No.  2),  which  I  personally  presented  to  the  president,  on  the  21st 
of  September,  according  to  my  promise  of  September  19,  was  contumeliously  sent 
back  to  me,  in  a  letter  (No.  3),  intimating  the  existence  of  improper  imputations 
in  mine,  calling  my  attention  to  my  assurance  of  July  22,  and  inquiring  whether 
I  could  concur  in  removing  the  deposites.  From  this  letter  (No.  3),  it  must  be 
evident,  that  when  it  was  written,  my  dismissal  was  not  then  deemed  justifiable 
on  grounds  su"bsequently  suggested;  for,  when  the  president  wrote  it,  he  knew 
the  contents  of  the  letter  deemed  offensive,  and  yet  he  held  the  correspondence 
open. 

What,  then,  I  ask,  subsequently  occurred  ?  Instead  of  treating  this  new  indig- 
nity, the  return  of  my  letter,  with  silence,  or  evincing  any  other  mode  of  dissat- 
isfaction, I  felt  that  I  was  on  duty  at  a  public  post,  and  that  I  ought  not  to  suffer 
it  to  be  taken  by  surprise.  I  could  not  now  mistake,  in  concluding  to  insult  me 
out  of  office,  or  to  draw  from  me  some  expression  which  might  form  a  pretext  for 
my  removal,  on  a  minor  point — so  doubtful  was  the  president,  after  all,  on  the 
propriety  of  removing  an  officer  for  not  yielding,  when  desired,  the  discretion 
given  to  him  by  law.  Accordingly,  I  sent  letter  No.  4 — subsequently,  with- 
drawn for  alteration — and  then  letters  Nos.  5  and  6 — No.  5  especially — because 
the  president  did  not  seem  to  comprehend  me,  when,  in  my  letter  No.  2,  I  said, 
that,  after  what  had  occurred  subsequently  to  July  22,  I  felt  myself  absolved  from 
aJl  obligation  to  observe  the  assurance  given  at  that  time. 

These  last  appeals,  indicative  of  anything  but  bad  feeling,  or  disrespect,  were 
also  sent  back  to  me,  in  a  letter  (No.  7),  declaring  my  services  no  longer  neces- 
sary. I  submit  to  all  just  men  to  determine,  by  whom  an  assurance  was  given, 
and  without  cause  disregarded. 


8S  REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES. 

ter.  Till  this  time,  he  was  an  ardent  admirer  and  devoted  friend 
of  General  Jackson,  and  his  leave-taking  on  this  occasion,  is  ap- 
parently in  the  spirit  of  one  still  disposed  to  look  back  with  an 
affection,  equalled  only  by  his  mortification  and  regret. 

Thus  was  I  thrust  from  ofBce— not  because  I  had  neglected  any  duty— not  be- 
cause I  had  di/fered  with  the  president  on  anv  other  point  of  public  policy— not 
because  I  had  differed  with  him  about  the  bank  of  the  United  States— but,  be- 
cause I  refused,  without  further  inquiry  or  action  by  Congress,  to  remove  the  de- 
posites.  If,  in  my  letter  (No.  2),  there  is  anything  thaf  should  not  have  been 
there,  I  ask  it  to  be  borne  in  mind,  that  it  was  written  under  a  deep  sense  of  in- 
jury and  insult.  I  appeal  to  all  prior  letters  and  intercourse,  to  show,  that  I  had 
not  on  any  occasion  forgotten  my  respect  for  the  chief  magistrate,  or  for  myself; 
and  I  deny  that,  in  any  letter,  there  was  inaccuracy  of  fact,  with  my  knowledge. 
As  I  considered  my  removal  inevitable,  I  asked,  in'my  personal  interview,  and'by 
letter  (No.  6),  such  order,  as,  when  shown  to  the  representatives  of  the  people, 
would  be  my  apology  for  leaving  the  station  under  my  care.  Had  such  order  been 
given,  all  subsequent  unpleasantness  would  have  been  prevented.  For  the  pres- 
ent result,  I  am  not  accountable. 

If  any  doubt  existed  as  to  the  propriety  of  submitting  the  annexed  letters  to  the 
public  eye,  it  is  removed  by  the  example  set  by  the  president  in  the  attack  which 
he  has  sanctioned,  and  against  which  this  is  my  defence.  I  appeal  to  the  justice 
and  generosity  of  all  publishers  of  newspapers,  who  have  inserted  therein  the  at- 
tack upon  me,  whether  I  have  not  a  claim  upon  them  to  allow  me  to  be  heard,  by 
publishing  the  present  letter,  and  the  annexed  documents. 

W.  J.  DUANE. 

Philadelphia,  December  2,  1833. 

No.  1. 
(From  the  Globe  of  September  20,  1833.) 

We  are  authorized  to  state,  that  the  deposites  of  the  public  money  will  be 
changed,  from  the  bank  of  the  United  States  to  the  state  banks,  as  soon  as  neces- 
sary arran<rements  can  be  made  for  that  purjiose,  and  that  it  is  believed  they  can 
be  completed  in  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  Boston,  in  time  to  make 
the  change  the  first  of  October,  and  perhaps  sooner,  if  circumstances  should  render 
an  earlier  action  necessary  on  the  part  of  the  government. 

It  is  contemplated,  we  understand,  not  to  remove  at  once  the  whole  of  the  pub- 
lic money  now  on  deposite  in  the  bank  of  the  United  States,  but  to  suffer  it  to  re- 
main there  until  it  shall  be  gradually  withdrawn  by  the  usual  operation  of  the  gov- 
ernment. And  this  plan  is  adopted  in  order  to  prevent  any  necessity,  on  the  part 
(jf  the  bank  of  the  United  States,  for  pressing  upon  the  commercial  community; 
and  to  enable  it  to  afford,  if  it  think  proper,  the  usual  facility  to  the  merchants. 
It  is  believed,  that,  by  this  means,  the  change  need  not  produce  any  inconvenience 
to  the  commercial  community,  and  that  circumstances  will  not  require  a  sudden 
and  heavy  call  on  the  bank  of  the  United  States,  so  as  to  occasion  embarrassment 
to  the  institution  or  the  public. 

No.  2. 

(The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  the  President  of  the  United  Slates.) 

Treasury  Department,  September  21,  1833. 
Sir  :  I  have  the  honor  to  lay  before  you — 

1.  A  copy  of  my  commission,  empowering  and  enjoining  me  to  execute  my  duty 
according  to  law,  and  authorizing  me  to  hold  my  office  at  your  pleasure. 

2.  A  copy  of  my  oath  of  office,  wherein  I  solemnly  pledge  myself  to  execute  the 
trust  confided  to  me  with  fidelity. 

3.  A  copy  of  the  Kith  section  of  the  law  chartering  the  bank  of  the  United 
States,  whereby  the  discretion  to  continue  the  deposites  of  the  public  money  in 
that  bank  was  committed  to  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  alone. 

4.  An  extract  from  your  letter  to  me  of  the  26th  of  June,  wherein  vou  promise 
not  to  interfere  with  the  independent  exercise  of  the  discretion  committed  to  me 
by  the  (abovemcntioned)  law  over  the  subject. 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  89 

It  may  also  be  observed  in  this  place,  as  an  instructive  item  of 
history  on  this  subject,  that  the  Hon.  Louis  McLane,  the  immediate 
predecessor  of  Mr.  Duane  in  the  treasury  department,  whose 
opinion  was  known  to  be  against  the  removal  of  the  deposites,  had 

5.  An  extract  from  your  exposition  of  the  18th  instant,  wherein  you  state,  that 
you  do  not  expect  me,  at  your  request,  order,  or  dictation,  to  do  any  act  which  I 
may  believe  to  be  illegal,  or  which  my  conscience  may  condemn. 

When  you  delivered  to  me  on  the  iSth  the  exposition  of  your  views,  above  re- 
ferred to,  I  asked  you  whether  I  was  to  regard  it  as  direction  by  you  to  me  to 
remove  the  deposites,  you  replied  that  it  was  your  direction  to  me  to  remove  the 
deposites,  but  upon  your  responsibility ;  and  you  had  the  goodness  to  add,  that,  if 
I  would  stand  by  you,  it  would  be  the  happiest  day  of  your  life. 

Solemnly  impressed  with  a  profound  sense  of  my  obligations  to  my  country  and 
myself,  after  painful  reflection,  and  upon  my  own  impressions,  unaided  by  any  ad- 
vice, such  as  I  expected,  I  respectfully  announce  to  you,  sir,  that  I  refuse  to  carry 
your  directions  into  effect. 

1 .  Not  because  I  desire  to  frustrate  your  wishes,  for  it  would  be  my  pleasure  to 
promote  them,  if  I  could  do  so  consistently  with  superior  obligations. 

2.  Not  because  I  desire  to  favor  the  bank  of  the  United  States,  to  which  I  ever 
have  been,  am,  and  ever  shall  be,  opposed. 

3.  Not  to  gratify  any  views,  passions,  or  feelings  of  my  own--but 

4.  Because  I  consider  the  proposed  change  of  the  depository,  in  the  absence  of 
all  necessity,  a  breach  of  the  public  faith. 

5.  Because  the  measure,  if  not  in  reality,  appears  to  be  vindictive  and  arbitrary, 
not  conservative  or  just. 

6.  Because  if  the  bank  has  abused  or  perverted  its  powers,  the  judiciary  are 
able  and  willing  to  punish ;  and  in  the  last  resort,  the  representatives  of  the  peo- 
ple may  do  so. 

7.  Because  the  last  house  of  representatives  of  the  United  States  pronounced 
the  public  money  in  the  bank  of  the  United  States  safe. 

8.  Because,  if  under  new  circumstances,  a  change  of  depository  ought  to  be 
made,  the  representatives  of  the  people,  chosen  since  your  appeal  to  them  in  your 
veto  message,  will  in  a  few  weeks  assemble,  and  be  willing  and  able  to  do  their 
duty. 

9.  Because  a  change  to  local  and  irresponsible  banks  will  tend  to  shake  public 
confidence,  and  promote  doubt  and  mischief  in  the  operations  of  society. 

10.  Because  it  is  not  sound  policy  in  the  Union,  to  foster  local  banks,  which,  in 
their  multiplication  and  cupidity,  derange,  depreciate,  and  banish  the  only  cur- 
rency known  to  the  constitution,  that  of  gold  and  silver. 

11.  Because  it  is  not  prudent  to  confide,  in  the  crude  way  proposed  by  your 
agent,  in  local  banks,  when  on  an  average  of  all  the  banks,  dependent  in  a  great 
degree  upon  each  other,  one  dollar  in  silver  can  not  be  paid  for  six  dollars  in  cir- 
culation. 

12.  Because  it  is  dangerous  to  place  in  the  hands  of  the  secretary  of  the  treas- 
ury, dependent  for  office  on  executive  will,  a  power  to  favor  or  punish  local  banks, 
and  consequently  make  them  political  machines. 

13.  Because  the  whole  proceeding  must  tend  to  diminish  the  confidence  of  the 
world  in  our  regard  for  national  credit  or  reputation,  inasmuch  as,  whatever  may 
be  the  abuses  of  the  directors  of  the  bank  of  the  United  States,  the  evil  now  to 
be  endured  must  be  borne  by  innocent  persons,  many  of  whom,  abroad,  had  a 
right  to  confide  in  the  law,  that  authorized  them  to  be  holders  of  stock. 

14.  Because  I  believe,  that  the  efforts  made  in  various  quarters,  to  hasten  the 
removal  of  the  deposites,  did  not  originate  with  patriots  or  statesmen,  but  in 
schemes  to  promote  selfish  or  factious  purposes. 

15.  Because  it  has  been  attempted,  by  persons  and  presses  known  to  be  in  the 
confidence  and  pay  of  the  administration,  to  intimidate  and  constrain  the  secretary 
of  the  treasury  to  execute  an  act  in  direct  opposition  to  his  own  solemn  convic- 
tions. 

And  now,  sir,  having,  with  a  frankness  that  means  no  disrespect,  and  with  feel- 
ings such  as  I  lately  declared  them  to  be,  stated  to  you  why  I  refuse  to  execute 
what  you  direct,  I  proceed  to  perform  a  necessarily  connected  act  of  duty,  by  an- 


90  REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES. 

been  advanced  to  the  department  of  state,  to  give  place,  as  was 
supposed,  to  a  man  who  might  be  subservient  to  this  measure ; 
and  the  fact,  that  the  object  of  calling  Mr.  Duane  to  that  station, 

nouncing  to  you,  that  I  do  not  intend  voluntarily  to  leave  the  post,  which  the  law 
has  placed  under  my  charge^  and  by  giving  you  my  reasons  for  so  refusing. 

It  is  true,  that  on  the  22d  of  July,  you  signified,  in  language  sufficiently  intel- 
ligible, that  you  would  then  remove  me  from  office,  unless  I  would  consent  to  re- 
move the  deposites  on  your  final  decision  ;  it  may  also  be  true,  that  I  should  then 
have  put  i1  to  the  test ;  and  it  is  also  true,  that,  under  a  well-grounded  assurance 
that  your  bank  plan,  the  only  one  then  embodied  in  the  instructions  drawn  up  by 
me  for  your  agent,  would  be,  as  it  proved,  abortive,  that  for  this  and  other  causes 
you  would  be  content,  I  did  state  my  willingness  to  retire,  if  I  could  not  concur 
with  you. 

But  I  am  not  afraid  to  meet  the  verdict  of  generous  men,  upon  my  refusal,  on 
reflection,  and  after  what  has  since  occurred,  to  do  voluntarily  what  1  then  be- 
lieved I  should  be  asked  to  do.  If  I  had  a  frail  reputation,  or  had  any  sinister 
purpose  to  answer,  I  might  be  open  to  censure,  for  a  neglect  of  punctilious  deli- 
cacy; but  I  can  have  no  impure  motives;  much  less  can  I  attain  any  selfish  end; 
I  barely  choose  between  one  mode  of  retirement  and  another;  and  I  choose  that 
mode  which  least  of  all  I  should  have  preferred,  if  I  had  not  exalted  and  redeem- 
ing considerations  in  its  favor. 

I  have,  besides,  your  own  example.  I  do  not  say,  that,  after  you  had  promised 
"  not  to  interfere  with  the  independent  exercise  of  the  discretion  vested  in  me  by 
law,"  you  were  wrong  in  interfering,  if  you  really  thought  the  public  welfare  a 
superior  consideration  to  a  mere  observance  of  assurances  made  to  me  ;  nor  can 
you  say,  that  I  err,  when,  upon  a  solemn  sense  of  duty,  I  prefer  one  mode  of  re- 
moval from  this  station  to  another. 

This  course  is  due  to  my  own  self-preservation,  as  well  as  to  the  public ;  for 
you  have,  in  all  your  papers,  held  out  aii  assurance,  that  you  "  would  not  inter- 
fere with  the  exercise  of  the  discretion  committed  to  me  by  law,"  over  the  de- 
posites ;  and  yet,  everything  but  actual  removal  of  me  from  office,  has  been  done 
to  affect  that  end.  So  that,  were  I  to  go  out  of  office  voluntarily,  you  might  be 
able  to  point  to  official  papers,  that  would  contradict,  if  I  said  you  interfered,  and 
I  should  thus  be  held  up  as  a  weak  or  faithless  agent,  who  regarded  delicacy  not 
shown  to  himself  more  than  duty  to  his  trust. 

Sir,  after  all,  I  confess  to  you  that  I  have  had  scruples ;  for  it  is  the  first  time 
that  I  have  ever  condescended  to  weigh  a  question  of  the  kind.  But  I  am  con- 
tent that  it  shall  be  said  of  me,  that  in  July  iast  I  forgot  myself,  and  my  duty 
too,  rather  than  that  it  should  be  said,  that  now,  knowing  the  course  that  you 
pursue,  I  had  in  any  way  favored  it.  On  the  contrary,  if  I  have  erred,  I  am  wil- 
ling to  be  reproved;   but  my  motives  no  man  can  impusjn. 

My  refusal  to  resign  can  not  keep  me,  one  moment  loncer  than  you  please,  in 
an  office  that  I  never  sought,  and  at  a  removal  from  which  I  shall  not  grieve  on 
my  own  account.  It  must,  on  the  contrary,  hasten  my  exit.  So  that,  if  you  shall 
proceed  in  wresting  from  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  the  citadel  in  his  posses- 
sion, the  act  can  only  be  accomplished  by  a  mandate,  which  will  be  my  apology  for 
no  longer  standing  in  the  breach. 

And  now,  sir,  allow  me  to  repeat  to  you,  in  sincerity  of  heart,  that,  in  taking 
the  present  course,  under  a  solemn  sense  of  my  obligations,  I  feel  a  sorrow  on 
your  account,  far  greater  than  on  my  own.  I  have  been  your  early,  uniform,  and 
steadfast  friend  ;  I  can  have  no  unkind  disposition,  but  shall  cherish  those  of  a 
kind  nature,  that  I  feel.  You  proudly  occupy  the  hearts  of  your  countrymen;  but 
still,  it  is  the  lot  of  humanity,  at  times,  to  err.  I  do  ample  justice  to  your  mo- 
tives ;  but  1  am  constrained  to  regret  your  present  proceedings,  and  I  devoutly 
wish,  that  you  may  live  to  see  all  my  forebodings  contradicted,  and  your  measures 
followed  by  results  beneficial  to  your  country,  and  honorable  to  yourself. 
With  the  utmost  consideration,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  J.  Duane. 
No.  3. 
(The  President  of  the  United  States  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.) 

Washington,  September  21,  1833. 

Sir  ;  After  you  retired,  I  opened  and  read  the  paper  you  handed  me.    I  here- 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  91 

was  not  disclosed  to  him,  would  seem  to  indicate  a  degree  of 
timidity  in  tlie  president  at  that  time,  which  was  subsequently  sup- 
planted by  a  bolder  purpose. 

with  return  it  as  a  communication  which  I  can  not  receive.  Having  invited  the 
free  and  full  communication  of  your  views,  before  I  made  up  a  final  opinion  upon 
the  subject,  I  can  not  consent  to  enter  into  further  discussion  of  the  question. 

There  are  numerous  imputations  in  the  letter,  which  can  not,  with  propriety,  be 
allowed  to  enter  into  a  correspondence  between  the  president  and  the  head  of  a 
department.  In  your  letter  of  July  last,  you  remark:  "  But,  if,  after  receiving 
the  information,  and  hearing  the  discussion,  I  shall  not  consider  it  my  duty,  as  a 
responsible  agent  of  the  law,  to  carry  into  effect  the  decision  that  you  may  then 
malce,  I  will,  from  respect  to  you,  and  for  myself,  afford  you  an  early  opportunity 
to  select  a  successor,  whose  views  may  accord  with  your  own,  on  the  important 
matter  in  contemplation."  My  communication  to  my  cabinet  was  made  under  this 
assurance  received  from  you ;  and  1  have  not  requested  you  to  perform  anything 
which  your  sense  of  duty  did  not  sanction.  I  have  merely  wished  to  be  informed, 
whether,  as  secretary  of  the  treasury,  you  can,  consistently  with  your  opinion  on 
the  subject  of  the  deposites,  adopt  sucli  measures  in  relation  to  them,  as,  in  my 
view,  the  public  interests,  and  a  due  execution  of  the  law  render  proper.  If  you 
■will  now  communicate  that  information,  it  will  confer  an  obligation  on 

Your  obedient  servant, 

Andrew  Jackson. 

No.  4. 
{The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  the  President  of  the  United  States.) 

Treasury  Department,  Se-ptember  21,  1833. 

Sir  :  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  note,  returning  the 
communication  that  I  presented  to  you  this  morning.  The  grounds  on  which  it  is 
returned,  are,  that  further  discussion  of  the  deposite  question  is  unnecessary,  and 
that  there  were  imputations  therein,  that  could  not  be  admitted  into  a  correspon- 
dence between  the  president  and  the  head  of  a  department. 

Allow  me  respectfully  to  say,  that  it  was  not  with  a  view  to  a  further  discus- 
sion, that  I  presented  my  reasons  for  declining  to  act,  agreeably  to  your  direction, 
in  removing  the  deposites,  but  to  justify  my  refusal;  nor  was  it  my  desire  or  my 
intention,  that  any  matter  contained  in  my  letter,  should  be  disrespectful,  or  open 
to  such  a  supposition.  That  anything  therein  should  be  so  construed,  I  very  much 
regret.  My  object  throughout  was  to  justify  the  course,  on  the  two  points  stated 
in  my  letter,  which,  under  the  most  solemn  impressions,  I  felt  it  to  be  my  duty  to 
pursue. 

To  show  you  my  obligations,  I  presented  a  copy  of  my  commission,  a  copy  of 
my  oath  of  office,  and  a  copy  of  the  law  giving  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  the 
discretion  to  change  the  public  depository  ;  to  show  you  upon  what  I  relied  in  my 
course  of  conduct,  I  quoted  your  letter  of  June  26,  and  your  exposition  of  the  i8th 
instant.  In  order  to  justify  my  refusal  to  resign,  I  described  the  circumstances 
under  which  your  letter  of  July  22,  and  my  reply  of  the  same  date,  were  written, 
and  showed  the  new  posture  in  which  I  was  placed,  by  subsequent  reflection  and 
occurrences. 

When  I  entered  your  administration,  I  had  no  knowledge  that  you  had  come  to 
any  decision  on  the  deposite  question,  or  that  you  meditated  a  change  of  depository 
without  the  action  of  Congress.  As  soon  as  I  was  made  acquainted  with  your 
views,  I  anxiously  sought  to  accord  with  them;  and  as  you  invited  a  full  disclo- 
sure of  my  thoughts,  by  assuring  me  in  your  letter  of  the  26th  of  June,  that  you 
did  not  intend  to  interfere  with  the  independent  exercise  of  the  discretion  commit- 
ted to  me  by  the  law  over  the  deposites,  I  opened  myself  freely  to  you  against  any 
change  of  the  depository.  At  all  subsequent  stages,  although  I  have  kept  myself 
open  to  explanation,  I  have  invariably  declined  to  make  that  change,  and  I  remain 
in  the  same  resolution  still. 

Permit  me  respectfully  to  say,  that  I  am  not  aware  that  my  willingness  or  un- 
willinKuess  to  afford  you  an  opportunity  to  select  a  successor,  would  have  had  any 
influence  or  bearin?  upon  any  question  before  the  cabinet ;  but  I  am  willing  to 
meet  that  consideration,  as  well  as  those  stated  to  you  this  day  in  our  interview. 


92  REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES. 

"  And  now,  sir  [said  Mr.  Clay],  having  seen  that  the  removal 
was  made  by  the  command  and  authority  of  the  president,  I  shall 
proceed  to  inquire  whether  it  was  done  in  conformity  with  the  con- 
stitution and  laws  of  the  United  States. 

In  short,  sir,  as  I  stated  in  that  interview,  mj'  course  is  justificatorj'  toward  you.  I 
desire  no  unkind  feeling ;  I  have  no  unkind  purpose.  However  ardent,  or  unu- 
sual, my  language  may  be,  it  is  at  least  sincere.  Allow  me,  then,  very  respect- 
fully to  state,  as  declared  at  our  interview,  that,  under  the  most  serious  convictions 
of  my  duty,  I  refuse  to  aid,  assist,  or  in  any  way  participate,  in  the  proposed 
change  of  the  public  depository;  that  I  refuse  to  relinquish  a  post  conferred  upon 
rae  by  the  law;  and  that,  without,  in  the  most  remote  degree,  meaning  any  sort  of 
disrespect  to  you,  I  protest  against  any  interference  on  your  part,  with  powers 
and  duties  which,  I  believe,  were  designedly  withheld  from  the  president,  and  com- 
mitted to  the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  the  fiscal  agent  of  the  law. 

With  fervent  wishes  that  your  measures  may  conduce  to  the  advantage  of  your 
country,  and  to  the  honor  of  yourself,  I  am,  with  the  utmost  consideration,  your 
obedient  servant, 

W.  J.  DUANE. 

No.  5. 
(The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  the  President  of  the  United  States.) 

Treasury  Department,  September  21,  1833. 

Sir  :  Allow  me,  with  great  respect,  to  present  to  you  another  view,  in  addition 
to  those  presented  to  you  in  my  letter  of  this  date. 

If  I  understand  your  wish,  as  it  is  to  be  collected  from  your  note  of  this  date, 
which  I  have  just  now  again  perused,  it  is  to  hold  me,  on  principles  of  delicacy, 
at  least,  to  my  assurance  of  July  22,  that,  unless  I  agreed  with  your  decision,  af- 
ter inquiry  and  discussion,  I  would  promptly  afford  you  an  opportunity  to  ob- 
tain a  successor  according  in  your  views.  I  pray  you  dispassionately  to  consider, 
whether  you  did  not  absolve  me,  even  upon  principles  of  delicacy,  from  all  obliga- 
tion upon  this  view  of  the  matter. 

1.  On  Wednesday,  September  18,  I  signified,  in  cabinet,  my  desire  to  take  and 
examine  your  exposition.  You  gave  it  to  me,  saying,  in  reply  to  my  inquiry,  as 
to  your  direction,  that  I  was  to  consider  myself  directed  to  act  on  your  responsi- 
bility. 

2.  On  Thursday  morning,  September  19,  you  applied  to  me  to  know,  if  I  had 
come  to  a  decision,  and  I  returned  by  your  messenger,  who  brought  your  note,  this 
reply : — 

"  To  the  President  of  the  United  States  : 

"  Sir  :  Upon  a  matter  that  deeply  concerns,  not  only  myself,  but  all  who  are 
dear  to  me,  I  have  deemed  it  right,  as  I  have  not  a  friend  here  to  advise  with,  to 
ask  the  counsel  of  my  father  at  this  crisis.  I  wrote  to  him  last  night,  and  am 
sure  that  nothing  but  sickness  will  prevent  his  presence  to-morrow  night.  On  the 
next  day,  I  trust  that  I  shall  be  able  to  make  a  communication  to  you. 
"  With  the  utmost  respect,  your  obedient  servant, 

''September  19,  1833."  "  Wm.  J.  Duane. 

3.  On  the  same  day  (Thursday,  19th  September),  your  private  secretary,  Ma- 
jor Donaldson,  called  on  me  to  say,  that  you  proposed  to  publish  in  the  Globe  of 
next  day,  your  decision.  I  replied,  that  I  thought  you  ought  not;  that  T  was  not 
a  party  to  it,  and  as  a  matter  of  delicacy  to  myself,  could  not  approve  of  it.  Lest 
words  should  be  forgotten,  I  wrote,  and  delivered  to  Maj.  Donaldson,  this  reply  : — 

"  J.  J.  Donaldson,  Esq.  : 

"  Dear  Sir  :  The  world  is  so  censorious,  that  I  am  obliged,  upon  reflection,  to 
express  to  you  my  hope,  that  you  will  not  regard  me  as  approvin?  of  any  publica- 
tion. It  would  seem  to  be  but  delicate  to  defer  such  an  act,  until  I  shall  either 
concur  or  decline.  However,  all  that  I  desire  to  have  understood,  is,  that  I  do  not 
approve  of  the  course  you  mentioned.  Were  I  the  president,  I  would  consult,  at 
least  reasonably  the  feelings  of  a  man  who  has  already  anxiety  enouah.  As  to 
the  newspapers,  they  will  know  what  has  been  done,  without  an  ofBcial  commu- 
nication. "  Very  respectfully,  vours, 

'' September  19,  1833."  '    '    «  W.  J.  Dua.n-e. 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  93 

"  I  do  not  purpose  at  this  time  to  go  into  the  reasons  alleged  by 
the  president  or  his  secretary,  except  so  far  as  those  reasons  con- 
tain an  attempt  to  show  that  he  possessed  the  requisite  authority. 
Because  if  tlie  president  of  the  United  8tates  had  no  power  to  do 

4.  In  the  Globe  of  Friday,  September,  20,  you  caused  it  be  announced  to  the 
world,  that  the  die  was  cast;  thus  altogether  disregarding  the  rights  of  the  secre- 
tary of  the  treasury,  and  my  own  feelings  and  fame ;  and  refusing,  besides,  to 
wait  even  until  the  next  day  to  receive  my  decision. 

Allow  me,  therefore,  very  respectfully,  but  confidently,  to  say,  that  I  was  thus 
discharged  from  any  sort  of  obligation,  or  respect  for,  or  on  account  of,  the  past. 
You  gave  me  no  opportunity  to  let  you  know,  whether  I  would  or  would  not  af- 
I'ord  you  an  opportunity  to  choose  a  successor.  In  short,  the  secretary  of  the 
treasury  was,  as  far  as  an  executive  act  would  do  it,  nullified  ;  and  I  hold  it,  there- 
fore, that,  after  such  a  course,  I  may  stand  before  my  country,  acquitted  of  any 
disregard,  even  of  delicacy. 

Trusting,  sir,  that  you  will  be  so  good  as  to  permit  this  to  enter  into  your  con- 
sideration, with  my  former  note  of  this  date,  and  that  we  may  close,  without  dis- 
credit to  either,  the  pending  matter,  I  am,  with  the  utmost  consideration,  year 
obedient   servant, 

W.  J.    DUANE. 

No.  6. 
(The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  the  President  of  the  United  Stales.) 

Treasury  Department,  September  21,  1833. 

Sir  :  As  you  had  not,  in  any  written  communication,  given  a  direction  as  to  the 
deposites,  but,  on  the  contrary,  had  left  the  action  to  the  secretary  of  the  treasury, 
as  a  matter  of  option,  I  deemed  it  my  duty,  when  I  had  the  honor  to  receive  from 
you,  your  exposition  of  the  18th  inst.,  to  ask  you,  whether  I  was  to  consider  my- 
self directed  to  remove  the  deposites,  and  you  replied,  that  I  was  directed  on 
your  responsibility. 

I  was  preparing  to  lay  before  you  an  exposition  of  our  relative  position  and 
views,  from  the  first  moment  of  my  entry  into  your  administration,  when  your 
decision  was  authoritatively  announced  in  the  Globe — a  proceeding  unsanctioned  by 
me,  that  rendered  all  further  discussion  needless,  and  any  attempt  of  the  kind 
derogatory  to  myself. 

A  communication  justificatory  of  my  course,  under  present  circumstances, 
which  I  delivered  to  you  yesterday,  having  been  returned,  on  account  of  alleged 
objectionable  matter  therein,  the  presence  of  which,  if  disrespectful,  I  regret.  It 
now  becomes  my  duty,  in  reply  to  your  letter,  returning  that  communication,  re- 
spectfully to  announce  my  unwillingness  to  carry  your  direction,  as  to  the  deposites, 
into  effect ;  and  in  making  known  that  determination — without  meaning  any  sort 
of  disrespect — to  protect  myself,  by  protesting  against  all  that  has  been  done,  or 
is  doing,  to  divest  the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  of  the  power  to  exercise,  inde- 
pendent of  the  president,  the  discretion  committed  to  him  by  law  over  the  de- 
posites. 

I  have  already,  sir,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  and  recently,  without  contradic- 
tion, before  the  cabinet,  stated,  that  I  did  not  know,  until  after  my  induction  into 
office,  that  you  had  determined  that  the  deposites  should  be  removed  without  any 
further  action  by  Congress.  If  I  had  known  that  such  was  your  decision,  and 
that  I  should  be  required  to  act,  I  would  not  have  accepted  office.  But  as  soon  as 
I  understood,  when  in  office,  what  your  intention  was,  I  sought  for  all  information 
calculated  to  enable  me  to  act  uprightly  in  the  embarrassing  ^position  in  which  I 
was  unexpectedly  placed. 

You  were  so  good  as  to  transmit  to  me,  to  that  end,  from  Boston,  not  only  the 
opinions  of  the  members  of  the  cabinet,  but  your  own  views  in  detail,  upon  the 
deposite  question.  But  instead  of  intimating  to  me,  that  my  disinclination  to  carry 
these  views  into  effect,  would  be  followed  by  a  call  for  my  retirement,  you  em- 
phatically assured  me,  in  your  letter  of  the  26th  of  June,  that  "  you  did  not  intend 
to  interfere  with  the  independent  exercise  of  the  discretion  committed  to  me  by 
law  over  the  subject." 

Fully  confiding  in  the  encouragement  thus  held  out,  I  entered  into  an  exposi- 
tion of  my  objections  to  the  proposed  measure.     Discussion  ended  in  an  under- 


94  REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES. 

this  thino" — if  the  constitution  and  laws,  instead  of  authorizins:  it, 
required  him  to  keep  his  hands  off  the  treasury — it  is  useless  to 
inquire  into  any  reasons  he  may  give  for  exercising  a  power  which 
he  did  not  possess.     Sir,  what  power  has  the  president  of  the 

standing,  that  we  should  remain  uncommitted,  until  after  an  inquiry  which  your 
agent  was  to  make,  should  be  completed,  and  until  the  discussion  of  the  cabinet. 
But,  pending  the  preparation  of  this  inquiry,  I  received  your  letter  of  July  22, 
conveying  what  I  understood  to  be  an  intimation,  that  I  must  retire,  unless  I 
would  then  say  that  I  would  remove  the  deposites,  after  the  inquiry  and  discussion, 
in  case  you  should  then  decide  to  have  them  removed. 

I  would  have  at  once  considered  this  letter  as  an  order  to  retire,  and  would  have 
obeyed  it,  if  I  had  not  thought  it  my  duty  to  hold  the  post  intrusted  me,  as  long 
as  I  could  do  so  with  benefit  to  the  country,  and  without  discredit  to  myself.  In- 
stead, therefore,  of  retiring  voluntarily  or  otherwise,  I  subjected  my  feelings  to 
restraint,  and  stated,  as  you  quote  in  your  letter  of  this  day,  that,  if  I  could  not, 
after  inquiry  and  discussion,  as  the  responsible  asent  of  the  law,  carry  into  effect 
the  decision  that  might  be  made,  I  would  afford  you  an  opportunity  to  select  a 
successor,  &c.  Under  these  circumstances,  the  inquiry  was  entered  upon.  It 
ended  in  showing,  as  I  had  predicted,  that  the  plan  submitted  to  me  on  the  26th 
of  June,  was  impracticable — and  in  a  report  without  any  defined  substitute,  ac- 
cording to  my  comprehension  of  it. 

After  a  consideration  of  the  subject  in  the  cabinet,  you  gave  directions,  as  stated 
at  the  commencement  of  this  letter,  and  I  wrote  to  you,  that  I  would  make  com- 
munication to  you  on  Saturday,  21st  instant,  and  I  accordingly  did  so.  as  herein 
before  stated.  Unto  the  present  time,  therefore,  I  have  been  struggling,  under 
painful  circumstances,  not  to  retain  a  post  that  I  never  sought,  and  the  loss  of 
which  I  shall  not  regret  on  my  own  account — but  to  maintain  it  for  the  country, 
under  a  serious  sense  of  duty  to  it,  and  to  avert  a  measure  that  I  honestly  feared 
might  affect  yourself. 

Without  entertaining  or  desiring  to  manifest  toward  you,  sir,  the  slightest  disre- 
spect, but  solemnly  impressed  with  a  consideration  of  my  responsibility  to  the 
country,  and  my  duty  to  myself,  I  now  definitely  declare,  that  I  will  not  in  any 
way  aid  or  assist,  to  cause  the  public  money  to  be  deposited  in  any  other  institu- 
tion, bank,  or  place,  than  that  provided  by  the  16th  section  of  the  act  chartering 
the  United  States  bank,  until  Congress  shall  direct  or  authorize  such  change  to  be 
made,  unless  good  cause  shall  arise,  such  as  in  my  judgment  does  not  now  exist. 

I  am  further  constrained,  owing  to  occurrences  and  circumstances,  that  in  part 
have  come  to  my  knowledge,  or  have  taken  place,  of  late,  to  leave  it  to  you,  sir,  to 
determine,  whether  I  am  or  am  not  to  remain  any  longer  a  member  of  your  admin- 
istration. I  sincerely  hope  and  beg,  sir,  that  you  will  consider,  that  I  owe  it  to 
myself,  my  family,  and  my  friends,  not  to  leave  my  course,  at  this  most  trying  mo- 
ment of  my  life,  open  to  doubt  or  conjecture;  that  my  conduct  has  already  sharp- 
ened the  dagger  of  malice,  as  may  be  seen  in  some  of  the  public  prints ;  that  you, 
who  have  been  assailed  in  so  many  tender  parts,  and  in  whose  defence  I  have  de- 
voted many  a  painful  day,  ought  to  make  allowance  forme,  in  my  present  position  ; 
that,  were  I  to  resign,  I  could  meet  no  calumniator  without  breach  of  duty;  that 
I  ask  such  order  or  direction  from  you,  in  relation  to  my  office,  as  may  protect  me 
and  my  children  from  reproach,  and  save  you  and  myself  from  all  present  or  fu- 
ture pain;  that  I  desire  to  separate  in  peace  and  kindness;  that  I  will  strive  to 
forget  all  unpleasantness,  or  cause  of  it;  and  that  1  devoutly  wish,  that  your 
measures  may  end  in  happiness  to  your  country,  and  honor  to  yourself. 
With  the  utmost  consideration,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  J.  DUANE. 

No.  7. 
{The  President  of  the  United  States  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.) 

September  23,  1833. 
.Sir  :  Since  I  returned  your  first  letter  of  September  21st,  and  since  the  receipt 
of  your  second  letter  of  the  same  day,  which  I  sent  back  to  you,  at  your  own  re- 
quest, I  have  received  your  third  and  fourth  letters  of  the  same  date.  The  last  two, 
as  well  as  the  first,  contain  statements  that  are  inaccurate;  and  as  I  have  already 
indicated  in  my  last  note  to  you,  that  a  correspondence  of  this  description  is  inad- 
missible, your  last  two  letters  are  herewith  returned. 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  95 

United  States  over  the  treasury  ?  Is  it  in  the  charter  estabh'shing 
the  bank  '?  The  clause  of  the  charter  relating  to  ilie  public  de- 
posits declares — 

[For  this  clause,  see  page  71.] 

"  This  is  in  strict  consonance  with  the  act  creating  the  treasury 
department  in  1789.  The  secretary  of  the  treasury  is  by  that  act 
constituted  the  agent  of  Congress  ;  he  is  required  to  report  to  Con- 
gress annually,  the  state  of  the  finances,  and  his  plans  respecting 
them  ;  and  if  Congress  in  either  of  its  branches  shall  require  it,  he 
is  to  report  at  any  time  on  any  particular  branch  of  the  fiscal  con- 
cerns of  the  country.  He  is  the  agent  of  Congress  to  watch  over 
the  safety  of  the  national  deposites ;  and  if,  from  any. peculiar  cir- 
cumstances, the  removal  of  them  shall  be  required,  he  is  to  report 
the  fact — to  whom?  to  the  president?  No,  sir;  he  must  report 
to  Congress,  together  with  his  reasons  therefor.  By  the  charter 
of  the  bank,  the  president  of  the  United  States  is  clothed  with  two 
powers  respecting  it,  and  two  only.  By  one  of  its  clauses  he  is 
authorized  to  nominate,  and  by  and  with  the  consent  of  the  senate, 
to  appoint  the  government  directors,  and  to  remove  them;  by  the 
other  clause  he  is  empowered  to  issue  a  scire  facias  when  he  shall 

But  from  all  your  recent  communications,  as  well  as  your  recent  conduct,  your 
feeling;s  and  sentiments  appear  to  be  of  such  a  character,  that,  after  your  letter  of 
July  last,  in  which  you  say,  should  your  views  not  accord  with  mine,  "  I  will, 
from  respect  to  you,  and  for  myself,  afford  you  an  opportunity  to  select  a  succes- 
sor, whose  views  may  accord  with  your  own,  on  the  important  matter  in  con- 
templation," and  your  determination  now  to  disregard  the  pledge  you  then  gave, 
I  feel  myself  constrained  to  notify  you,  that  your  further  services  as  secretary  of 
the  treasury  are  no  longer  required. 

I  am,  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

Andrew  Jackson. 
[NiLF.s's  Register,  volume  xlv,  pp.  236-239.] 

In  a  private  letter  of  Mr.  Duane  to  a  friend  in  New  Orleans,  dated  Philadel- 
phia, October  23,  1833,  some  extracts  from  which  were  afterward  published  in 
the  New  Orleans  Bulletin,  he  says  : — 

"It  is  but  too  obvious,  either  that  we  misunderstood  the  qualities  of  General 
Jackson's  head,  or  else  he  has  been  wonderfully  altered.  On  all  the  cardinal 
questions  agitated,  he  has  failed  to  be  consistent.  He  promised  purity  in  selec- 
tions for  office ;  yet  few  have  been  purely  made.  He  professed  to  be  a  friend  to 
domestic  industry  ;  yet  he  has  done  more  than  anybody  else  to  prostrate  it.  He  advo- 
cated a  national  government  bank ;  and  yet  affects  to  dread  a  moneyed  aristocracy. 
He  complained  of  the  corruptions  of  one  bank ;  and  takes  forty  or  fifty  irresponsible 
paper-circulating  banks  under  the  national  wing.  He  has  been  for  and  against 
internal  improvement.  He  denounced  nullification;  yet  has  of  late  been  unsay- 
ing all  that  he  said  in  his  proclamation.  In  short,  I  do  not  believe  he  ever  had 
fixed  principles,  or  ever  arrived  at  any  result  by  the  exercise  of  the  mind.  Im- 
pulses and  passions  have  ruled.  *  «  *  j  had  not  been  twenty-four  hours  in 
office,  when  I  felt,  as  I  wrote  my  father,  my  vessel  on  the  breakers.  I  found  that 
the  president  was  in  the  hands  of  men,  whom  I  would  not  trust,  personally  or  po- 
litically. •  •  •  I  undertook  to  tell  the  president  the  truth,  in  the  language 
of  a  freeman,  rather  than  a  courtier — the  end  of  all  which  was  my  removal  from 
office,  under  aggravating  circumstances.  *  •  •  The  state  of  things  is  this : 
The  good  of  the  country  is  no  more  thought  of,  than  if  everything  ought  to  be 
left  to  chance.  *  *  *  At  Washington,  my  unwillingness  to  pull,  as  a  well- 
trained  mule  would,  was  a  matter  of  surprise.  Moral  courage  at  Washington,  is 
as  scarce  as  liberality  at  Warsaw." 


90  REMOVAL    OF     THE     DEPOSITES. 

apprehend  that  the  charter  of  the  institution  has  been  violated. 
These,  I  say,  are  the  only  powers  given  him  by  the  charter  ;  all 
others  are  denied  to  him,  and  are  given  to  others.  The  bank  is 
not  bound  to  report  the  state  of  its  affairs  to  him,  but  to  the  secre- 
tary of  the  treasury  ;  and  it  is  thus  to  report  whenever  he  shall 
call  upon  it  for  information  ;  but  when  it  becomes  necessary  to  go 
further,  a  committee  of  Congress  is  authorized  to  examine  the 
books  of  the  bank,  and  to  look  into  the  whole  state  of  its  affairs, 
and  to  report,  not  to  the  president,  hit  to  Congress,  who  appointed 
them.  The  president,  as  I  have  said,  is  restricted  to  the  two 
powers  of  appointing  directors,  and  issuing  a  scire  facias. 

"And  has  the  president  any  power  over  the  treasury  by  the  con- 
stitution ?  None,  sir — none.  The  constitution  requires  that  no 
money  shall  be  drawn  from  the  treasury  except  by  appropriation, 
thus  placing  it  entirely  under  the  control  of  Congress."      *     *     # 

After  having  animadverted,  as  the  fact  demanded,  upon  the  in- 
troduction into  the  president's  message  of  the  novel  phraseology 
of  "the  constitution  and  suffrages  of  the  American  people."  as  if 
the  source  of  power  were  a  part  of  the  rule  of  government,  and 
as  if  the  will  of  the  people  were  to  be  interpreted  according  to  the 
will  of  the  president,  and  that  interpretation  superadded  to  the  con- 
stitution as  a  guide  ;  and  after  having  duly  chastised  the  perversion 
that  had  been  made  of  the  duty  of  the  president  "  to  see  that  the 
laws  be  faithfully  executed,"  by  making  it  a  warrant  to  violate 
them,  Mr.  Clay  said,  in  the  conclusion  of  his  remarks,  upon  this 
latter  point : — 

"  Sir,  when  a  doctrine  like  this  shall  be  admitted  as  orthodox, 
when  it  shall  be  acquiesced  in  by  the  people  of  this  country,  our 
government  will  have  become  a  simjjle  machine  enough.  The  will 
of  the  president  will  be  the  whole  of  it.  There  will  be  but  one 
bed,  and  that  will  be  the  bed  of  Procrustes — but  onew^ill,  the  will 
of  the  president.  All  the  departments,  and  all  subordinate  func- 
tionaries of  government,  great  or  small,  must  submit  to  that  will ; 
and  if  they  do  not,  then  the  president  will  have  failed  to  '  see  that 
the  laws  are  faithfully  executed." 

On  this  principle,  the  president  claimed  the  right  of  setting  aside 
the  decisions  of  the  supreme  court  of  the  United  States,  and  refused 
to  execute  their  mandate  in  the  case  of  the  Cherokees  and  their 
missionaries  in  Georgia. 

It  happened  that  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  held  his  appoint- 
ment at  the  will  of  the  president,  though  an  agent  of  Congress  : 
and  General  Jackson  undertook  to  apply  his  principle  of  control 
to  this  officer.     He  labored  hard,  for  months,  to  bring  the  mem- 


RF4MOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  97 

bers  of  his  cabinet — all  of  whom  knew  well  that  they  were  under 
the  operation  of  the  same  screw — into  the  measure,  and  succeeded, 
by  this  power,  in  converting  a  majority.  But  the  secretary  of  tlie 
treasury,  being  contumacious,  compelled  the  president  to  the  appli- 
cation of  force — and  in  that  violence,  he  broke  into  the  appropriate 
domain  of  the  democratic  branch  of  the  government.  Not  satisfied 
with  controlling  his  own  officers,  he  proposed  to  control  the  agents 
of  Congress,  and  thus  took  possession  of  the  treasury  of  the  nation. 
But  this  stretch  of  power  did  not  stop  even  whhin  these  limits. 
It  proposed  to  take  the  morals,  the  press,  and  the  elective  fran- 
chise, under  its  charge.  The  famous  paper  of  the  tSth  of  Sep- 
tember said  :  "  Its  responsibility  [the  measure  of  removal]  has 
been  assumed,  after  the  most  mature  deliberation  and  reflection,  as 
necessary  to  iirescrvc  the  morals  of  the -peo-ple,  the  freedom  of  the  press, 
and  t/te  pnrity  of  the  elective  franchise.''''  On  this  point,  Mr.  Clay 
says : — 

"  The  morals  of  the  people  !  What  part  of  the  constitution 
has  given  to  the  president  any  power  over  '  the  morals  of  the  peo- 
ple?' None.  It  does  not  give  such  power  even  over  religion,  the 
presiding  and  genial  influence  over  every  true  system  of  morals. 
No,  sir,  it  gives  him  no  such  power. 

"  And  what  is  the  next  step?  To-day  he  claims  a  power  as 
necessary  to  the  morals  of  the  people  ;  to-morrow  he  will  claim 
another,  as  still  more  indispensable  to  our  religion.  And  the  pres- 
ident might  in  this  case  as  well  have  said,  that  he  went  into  the  of- 
fice of  the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  and  controlled  the  free  exercise 
of  his  authority  as  secretary,  because  it  was  necessary  to  preserve 
'the  religion  of  the  people  !'  I  ask  for  the  authority.  Will  any 
one  of  those  gentlemen  here,  who  consider  themselves  as  the  vin- 
dicators of  the  executive,  point  me  to  any  clause  of  the  constitu- 
tion which  gives  to  the  prrseitt  president  of  the  United  States  any 
power  to  preserve  '  the  morals  of  the  people  ?' 

"  But  '  the  freedom  of  the  press,'  it  seems,  was  another  motive. 
Sir,  I  am  not  surprised  that  the  present  secretary  of  the  treasury 
should  feel  a  desire  to  revive  this  power  over  the  press.  He,  I 
think,  was  a  member  of  that  party  which  passed  the  sedition  law, 
under  precisely  the  same  pretext.  I  recollect  it  was  said,  that  this 
bank,  tliis  monster  of  tyranny,  was  taking  into  its  pay  a  coundess 
number  of  papers,  and  by  this  means  was  destroying  the  fair  fame 
of  the  president  and  hi.s  secretary,  and  all  that  sort  of  thing.  Sir, 
it  is  sometimes  useful  to  refer  back  to  those  old  thino;s — to  the 
notions  and  the  motives  which  induced  men  in  former  times  to  do 
certain  acts  which  may  not  be  altogether  unlike  some  others  in  our 
own  time. 

Vol.  II.— 7 


98  REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES. 

"  The  famous  sedition  act  was  passed,  sir,  in  1798;  and  it  con- 
tained, among  others,  the  following  provision.* 

"  We  have  now,  sir,  in  the  reasons  for  the  removal  of  the  gov- 
ernment deposites,  the  same  motives  avowed  and  acted  upon.  The 
abuse  of  the  government,  bringing  it  into  disrepute,  using  con- 
temptuous language  to  persons  high  in  authority,  constituted  the 
motives  for  passing  the  sedition  law  ;  and  what  have  we  now  but 
a  repetition  of  the  same  complaints  of  abuses,  disrespect,  and  so 
forth  ?  As  it  is  now,  so  it  was  then ;  for,  says  the  next  section  of 
the  same  sedition  act.t 

"  It  is  only  for  the  sake  of  the  truth,  said  they  who  favored  the 
passage  of  that  law — for  the  sake  of  justice  ;  as  it  is  now  said, 
that  it  was  necessary  to  remove  the  deposites,  in  order  to  preserve 
the  purity  of  the  press.  That's  all,  sir.  But  there  is  one  part  of 
this  assumption  of  power  by  the  president  much  more  tyrannical 
than  that  act.  Under  that  law,  the  offending  party  was  to  have  a 
trial  by  jury,  the  benefit  of  witnesses  and  of  counsel,  and  the  right 
to  have  the  truth  of  his  alleged  libels  examined.  But  wliat  is  the 
case  now  under  consideration?  Why,  sir,  the  president  takes  the 
whole  matter  in  his  own  hands  :  he  is  at  once  the  jndge,  the  jury, 
and  the  executioner  of  the  sentence,  and  utterly  deprives  the  ac- 
cused party  of  the  opportunit}^  of  showing  that  the  imputed  libel  is 
no  libel  at  all,  but  founded  in  the  clearest  truth. 

'•  But  'the  purity  of  the  elective  franchise,'  also,  the  president 
has  very  much  at  heart.  And  here,-  again,  I  ask  what  part  of  the 
constitution  gives  him  any  power  over  that  'franchise?'  Look, 
sir,  at  the  nature  of  the  exercise  of  this  power  !  If  it  was  really 
necessary  that  steps  should  be  taken  to  preserve  the  purity  of  the 

*"  '  Section  2.  That  if  any  person  shall  write,  print,  utter,  or  publish,  or  shall 
cause  or  procure  to  be  written,  printed,  uttered,  or  published,  or  shall,  knowingly 
and  willingly,  assist  or  aid  in  writing,  printing,  uttering,  or  publishing,  any.  false, 
scandalous,  and  malicious  writing  or  writings,  against  the  government  of  the  Uni- 
ted States,  or  either  house  of  the  Congress  of  the  IJnited  States,  or  the  presi,dent 
of  the  United  States,  witl>  intent  lo  defame  the  said  government,  or  either  house 
of  the  said  Congress,  or  the  said  president,  or  to  bring  them,  or  either  of  them, 
into  contempt  or  disrepute  ;  or  to  excite  against  them,  or  either  of  them,  the  hatred 
of  the  good  people  of  the  United  States,  or  to  stir  up  sedition  within  the  United 
States;  or' to  excite  any  unlawful  combinations  therein,  for  opposing  or  resisting 
any  law  of, the  United  Stjites,  or  any  act  of  the  president  of  the  United  States, 
done  in  pursuance  of  any  sucli  law,  or  of  the  powers  in  him  vested  by  the  consti- 
tution of  the  United  States  ;  or  to  resist,  oppose,  or  defeat,  any  such  law  or  act : 
or  to  aid,  encourage,  or  abet,  any  hostile  designs  of  any  foreign  nation,  against 
the  United  States,  tlieir  people,  or  government,  then  such  person,  being  thereof 
convicted  before  any  court  of  the  United  States  having  jurisdiction  thereof,  shall 
be  punislicd  by  a  fine  not  exceeding  two  thousand  dollars,  and  by  imprisonment 
not  exceeding  two  years.'  •  . 

f  "  '  That  if  any  person  shall  be  prosecuted  under  this  act,  for  the  writing  or 
publishing  of  any  libel  aforesaid,  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  defendant,  upon  the 
trial  of  the  cause,  to  give  in  evidence  in  his  defence,  the  truth  of  the  matter  con- 
tained in  the  publication  charged  as  a  libel.  And  the  jury  who  shall  try  the 
cause,  shall  have  a  right  to  determine  the  law  and  the  fact,  under  the  direction 
of  the  court,  as  in  other  cases.' 


KCMOVAL    OF    TIIK    DEPOSITES.  90 

press,  or  the  freedom  of  election?,  what  ought  the  president  to  have 
done  ?  Taken  the  matter  into  his  own  hands  ?  No,  sir.  It  was 
his  duty  to  recommend  to  Conijress  the  passage  of  laws  for  the 
purpose,  under  suitable  sanctions — laws  which  the  courts  of  the 
United  States  could  execute.  We  could  not  have  been  worse  oft' 
under  such  laws  (however  exceptionable  they  might  be),  than  v.  c 
are  now.  We  could  then,  sir,  have  reviewed  the  laws,  and  scc;i 
whether  Congress  or  the  president  had  properly  any  power  over 
this  matter;  or  whether  the  article  of  the  constitution  v/hich  for- 
bids that  tlie  press  shall  be  touched,  and  declares  that  religion 
shall  be  sacred  from  all  the  powers  of  legislation,  applied  in  tlir- 
case  or  not.     This  the  president  has  undertaken  to  do.  .   .   ■ 

"  Where  is  the  security  against  such  conduct  on  the  part  of  the 
president?  Where  the  boundary  to  this  tremendous  authority, 
which  he  has  undertaken  to  exercise?  Sir,  every  barrier  around 
the  treasury  is  broken  down.  From  the  moment  that  the  president 
said,  '  T  make  this  measure  my  own,  I  take  upon  myself  the  re- 
sponsibility,' from  that  moment  the  public  treasury  might  as  well 
have  been  at  the  hermitage  as  at  this  place.  Sir,  the  measure 
adopted  by  the  president  is  without  precedent — in  our  day  at  best. 
There  is,  indeed,  a  precedent  on  record,  but  you  must  go  up  to 
the  Christian  era  for  it.  It  will  be  recollected,  by  those  who  are 
conversant  with  ancient  history,  that,  after  Pompey  was  compelled 
to  retire  to  Brundusium,  Caesar,  who  had  been  anxious  to  i-ive  him 
battle,  returned  to  Rome,  '  having  reduced  Italy  (says  the  historian) 
in  sixty  days  (the  exact  period,  sir,  between  the  removal  of  the  de- 
posites  and  the  meeting  of  Congress,  without  the  usual  allowance 
of  three  days'  grace),  without  bloodshed.'  The  historian  goes  on: 
'  Finding  the  city  in  a  more  settled  condition  than  he  expected,  and 
many  senators  there,  he  addressed  them  in  a  mild  and  gracious 
manner  (as  the  president  addressed  his  late  secretary  of  the  treas- 
ury), and  desired  them  to  send  deputies  to  Pompey  with  an  offer 
of  honorable  terms  of  peace.  As  Metellus,  the  tribune,  npjiosrd  /lix 
taking  money  out  of  the  public  treasury,  and  cited  some  laws  against  it 
(such,  sir,  I  suppose,  as  I  have  endeavored  to  cite  on  this  occasion), 
Caesar  said,  '  Arms  and  laws  do  not  Oourish  together.  If  you  arc 
not  pleased  with  what  I  am  about,  you  have  only  to  withdraw. 
('Leave  the  office,  Mr.  Duane  !')  War,  indeed,  will  not  tolcra'c 
much  liberty  of  speech.  When  J  say  this,  I  am  renouncing  iiiV 
own  right ;  for  you,  and  all  those  whom  I  have  found  excitino:  a 
spirit  of  faction  against  me,  are  at  my  disposal.'  Havino-  paid  this, 
he  approached  the  doors  of  the  treasury,  and  as  the  keys  were  rot 
produced,  he  sent  for  workmen  to  break  them  open.  Metellus 
again  opposed  him,  and  gained  credit  with  some  for  his  finnness  ; 
but  Ca3sar,  with  an  elevated  voice,  threatened  to  put  him  to  (Jeath, 
if  he  gave  any  further  trouble.  'And  you  know  very  well,  youiig 
man,'  said  he,  'that  this  is  harder  tor  me  to  sav  than  to  do/  " 


100  REMOVAL    OF    THE     DEPOSITES. 

The  position  occupied  by  Mr.  Duane  in  this  affair,  is  one  that 
will  command  the  respect  of  the  age  and  of  posterity — and  the 
same  feeling  that  applauds  him,  will  regard  with  deep  mortification 
and  regret  the  consent  of  Mr.  Taney  to  lay  aside  the  robes  of  an 
attorney-general,  to  commit  this  outrage  on  the  constitution  and 
laws  of  his  country  !  It  was  cruel,  indeed,  to  call  Mr.  Duane  to 
the  head  of  the  treasury,  without  advising  him  of  the  purpose  in 
view.     His  position  was  embarrassing  and  painful  in  the  extreme. 

In  regard  to  the  question  of  casuistry  raised  by  his  refusal  to 
resign,  after  he  had  given  a  pledge  that  he  would  not  stand  in  the 
way  of  the  president,  it  must  be  left  to  the  defence  which  he  him- 
self has  made.  It  can  not  be  denied,  that  the  treatment  he  re- 
ceived was  a  just  subject  of  complaint;  or  that  it  materially  affected 
his  relations  with  the  president ;  or  that  it  forced  him  into  a  defen- 
sive position  ;  though  a  third  person  could  hardly  assume  to  de- 
cide, that  even  all  this  injury,  present  and  prospective,  discharged 
him  from  the  obligations  of  the  understanding  which  he,  by  his  own 
voluntary  act,  had  originated  and  authorized.  It  is  clear,  however, 
that  the  president,  who  had  set  the  example  of  breaking  promise — 
having  said,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Duane,  that  he  would  "  not  interfere 
with  the  independent  exercise  of  the  discretion  vested  in  him  by  law" 
— was  not  the  party  to  complain  of  a  like  breach  of  promise  toward 
himself.  But  Mr.  Duane's  manly  and  noble  conduct,  in  pro- 
testing against  this  measure,  and  resisting  it  to  the  last,  sacrificing 
the  honor  and  emoluments  of  place,  for  the  maintenance  and  vin- 
dication of  principle,  exposing  himself  to  the  reproach  and  incur- 
ring the  abuse  of  all  his  former  political  associates,  was  worthy  of 
all  praise,  and  will  for  ever  receive  the  favorable  verdict  of  man- 
kind. It  exhibits  one  of  the  strongest  points  in  the  history  of  the 
country,  as  an  example  of  virtue,  of  patriotism,  in  conflict  with 
arbitrary  power.  The  devotion  of  Mr.  Duane  to  General  Jack- 
son, is  sufficiently  proved  by  his  call  to  the  cabinet ;  the  pain  he 
suffered  in  his  controversy  with  the  president,  might  be  inferred, 
even  if  it  were  not  revealed  in  the  correspondence  between  them  ; 
his  adherence  to  principle  and  law,  under  all  these  trials,  and  the 
sacrifice  he  finally  made,  are  most  exemplary;  and  his  disappoint- 
ment, as  to  the  character  of  the  president,  and  as  to  the  state  of 
things  at  Washington,  at  that  time,  manifested  in  his  letter  of  Octo- 
ber 23, 1833,  to  a  friend  in  New  Orleans,  was  the  natural  result  of 
such  experience,  and  is  communicated  in  the  frankness  of  private 
friendship,  and  therefore  the  more  reliable  as  an  honest  opinion. 


HEMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  iOl 


CHAPTER  IV. 

REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES. 

A  Locum  Tenens. — Difficulty  of  the  Secretary's  Task. — His  Reasons  for  removing 
the  Deposites. — What  Mr.  Clay  thought. — The  Secretary  lectiires  Congress  on 
Law,  Politics,  Affairs  of  State,  Free  Institutions,  and  other  Matters. — The  Rele- 
vancy of  these  Topics  to  Finance  considered. — False  Position  of  the  Secretary. 
— Consequences. — Sometimes  right.  Sometimes  wrong. — In  a  Strait  betwixt 
Two. — Orders  from  one  Quarter. — Responsibility  in  Another. — Sinks  between 
t^yo  Boats. 

The  remarkable  part  enacted  by  the  locum  tenens  of  the  treasury 
department,  in  the  removal  of  the  deposites,  deserves  yet  more 
consideration,  than  the  condensed  analysis  of  his  report,  and  a  few 
scattered  allusions  to  him,  in  the  preceding  chapter.  In  justifica- 
tion of  the  denomination  here  applied  to  his  position,  it  is  sufficient 
to  say,  that  a  commission  given  by  the  president  to  any  public  offi- 
cer, whose  appointment  requires  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
senate,  can  not  be  more  than  that  of  a  locum  tenens,  as  the  agent 
of  the  executive,  till  his  appointment  is  confirmed  by  the  action  of 
the  co-ordinate  power.  Courtesy  usually  applies  to  him  the  style 
of  the  office  which  he  has  contingently  in  prospect.  But  Roger 
B.  Taney  was  never  secretary  of  the  treasury  of  the  United  States. 
That  was  impossible  till  the  senate  should  confirm  the  nomination. 
But  he  was  rejected.  This  distinction  may  often  be,  as  it  is  in 
this  case,  practically  important,  to  determine  where  the  responsi- 
bility of  all  agencies  and  acts  of  the  government  lies.  If  the  pres- 
ident commissions  an  agent  to  accomplish  his  own  arbitrary  designs, 
and  has  reason  to  know,  that  this  agent,  or  this  service,  will  not  be 
agreeable  to  the  co-ordinate  power  of  appointment,  he  violates  the 
spirit  and  intent  of  the  constitution.  If,  as  in  the  case  of  the  head 
of  the  treasury,  who  is  an  agent,  an  employee  of  Congress,  he  puts 
forward  a  locum  tenens  that  is  offensive  to  that  body,  knowing  him 
to  be  such,  either  in  his  want  of  the  qualifications  which  that  body 
would  prefer,  or  in  his  want  of  fidelity  to  them,  it  is  a  manifest  im- 
propriety, and  one  bordering  on  what  might  be  more  harshly  de- 
nominated.    If,  in  addition  to  this,  he  takes  advantage  of  the  letter 


102  REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES. 

of  the  law,  and  employs  a  locum  tenens  over  the  treasuiy,  for  the 
very  purpose  of  violating  the  will  of  Congress,  or  of  the  co-ordinate 
power  of  appointment,  thrusting  him  upon  them  against  all  their 
feelings  and  wishes,  then  it  is  an  outrage.  Tf,  yet  further,  he  does 
this  for  the  purpose  of  usurping  the  rights  of  Congress,  it  then  be- 
comes a  heinous  offence.  Such — the  last  of  these  suppositions — 
appears  to  have  been  precisely  the  position  of  Mr.  Taney,  as  the 
locum  tenens  in  charge  of  the  United  States  treasury,  in  1S33,  till 
tlie  time  of  his  rejection  by  the  senate,  in  1S34.  He  was  forced 
upon  Congress  and  the  senate  against  their  will — or  rather,  having 
never  received  the  sanction  of  Congress  as  an  employee,  he  was 
put  forward  to  do  that  against  which  the  house  of  representatives 
protested  in  advance,  and  upon  which  the  senate  afterward  passed 
a  resolution  of  censure.  In  law  Mr.  Taney  was  an  agent  of  Con- 
gress ;  in  effect  he  was  not ;  his  appointment  was  in  spirit  a  viola- 
tion of  the  constitution  ;  and  his  action  w  as  a  gross  violation  of  its 
letter.  The  refusal  of  the  president  to  send  in  his  name  to  the 
senate,  till  Congress  had  been  nearly  seven  months  in  session,  was 
an  aggravation  of  the  wrong  done  to  the  rights  of  that  body,  to  the 
rights  of  Congress,  and  to  the  constitution,  as  it  forced  upon  the 
country  a  public  agent,  for  a  piotracted  period,  which  the  consti- 
tutional authorities  could  never  sanction — and  it  was  known  that 
such  would  probably  be  the  result.  The  motive  of  withholding 
the  name,  arose  from  the  knowledge,  that  the  public  will,  as  ex- 
pressed through  its  constitutional  organs,  was  violated,  and  that 
this  violence,  so  far  as  this  incumbent  was  concerned,  would  be 
barred  the  moment  he  should  be  nominated.  He  was  rejected  the 
next  day. 

The  power  of  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  over  the  deposites, 
as  vested  in  him  by  one  section  of  the  law  which  created  the  Uni- 
ted States  bank  of  1816,  has  already  been  considered.  It  was 
obviously  a  discretion  conferred  for  an  exigency  that  might  arise, 
affording  presumptive  evidence  to  the  secretary,  that  the  public 
funds  were  in  an  unsafe  condition,  and  investing  him  with  power, 
according  to  the  best  of  his  judgment,  to  rescue  them  from  hazard, 
lor  which  he  was  required  to  account  to  Congress  "  immediately, 
if  in  session  ;  and  if  not,  immediately  after  the  commencement  of 
the  next  session." 

The  secretary  of  the  treasury  (he  is  so  denominated  in  courtesy) 
had  a  difficult  task  to  perform,  in  rendering  his  account  to  Con- 
gress.    The  law  is  very  strong  in  its  terms,  in  case  of  the  use  of 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  103 

the  high  discretion  of  disturbing  the  condition  of  the  public  depos- 
ites,  as  fixed  by  their  constitutional  keepers.  He  must  give  his 
reasons  "immediately."  It  was  a  great  responsibility.  He  was 
required  to  tell  "  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the 
truth."  He  was  in  court,  and  under  the  oath  of  office.  There 
must  be  good  and  sufficient  reasons  for  such  a  use  of  discretion — 
not  reasons  of  state — but  reasons  of  a  man  of  business,  of  a  banker, 
of  a  minister  of  finance.  In  his  official  ca|)acity,  he  had  nothing 
to  do  with  reasons  of  state.  These  were  the  province  of  his  mas- 
ters, but  arrogance  in  him  as  a  servant  to  name  them.  It  is  not 
possible  to  conceive  of  a  reason  suitable  for  him  to  advance  on  this 
occasion,  which  did  not  regard  the  safctij  of  the  public  funds.  Con- 
gress had  selected  the  place  of  deposite  ;  it  was  a  part  of  law  ;  the 
public  faith  was  pledged  ;  and  there  were  parties,  to  the  arrange- 
ment, who  had  their  rights.  Congress — one  of  its  branches — had 
acted  on  the  question,  the  state  of  which  had  undergone  no  change, 
and  recorded  a  mandatory  expression  of  their  will ;  and  the  duty 
of  the  secretary,  so  far  as  this  matter  was  concerned,  was  simply 
that  of  a  commercial  agent — to  secure  the  safety  of  the  public  funds, 
till  further  orders. 

The  following  spirited  and  sarcastic  remarks  of  Mr.  Clay,  cut- 
dng  more  ways  than  one,  will  show  the  opinion  he  entertained  of 
the  first  position  of  the  secretary  in  his  report : — 

"  The  report  of  the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  in  the  first  para- 
graph, commences  with  a  misstatement  of  the  fact.  He  says,  '/ 
have  directed  '  that  the  deposites  of  the  money  of  the  United  States 
shall  not  be  made  in  the  bank  of  the  United  States.  If  this  asser- 
tion is  regarded  in  any  other  than  a  mere  formal  sense,  it  is  not 
true.  The  secretary  may  have  been  the  instrument,  the  clerk, 
the  automaton,  in  whose  name  the  order  was  issued;  but  the  meas- 
ure was  that  of  the  president,  by  whose  authority  or  command  the 
order  v/as  given  ;  and  of  this  we  have  the  highest  and  most  authen- 
tic evidence.  The  president  has  told  the  world  that  the  measure 
was  his  own,  and  that  he  took  it  upon  his  own  responsibility.  And 
he  has  exonerated  his  cabinet  from  all  responsibility  about  it.  The 
secretary  ought  to  have  frankly  disclosed  all  the  circumstances  of 
the  case,  and  told  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the 
truth.  If  he  had  done  so,  he  would  have  informed  Congress,  that 
the  removal  had  been  decided  by  the  president  on  the  eighteenth 
of  September  last;  that  it  had  been  announced  to  the  public  on 
the  twentieth;  and  that  Mr.  Duane  remained  in  oflice  until  the 
twenty-third.  He  would  have  informed  Congress,  that  diis  impor- 
tant measure  was  decided  before  he  entered  into  his  new  office, 


104  REMOVAL    OF     THE    DEPOSITES. 

and  was  the  cause  of  his  appointment.  Yes,  sir,  the  present  sec- 
retary stood  by,  a  witness  to  the  struggle  in  the  mind  of  his  prede- 
cessor, between  his  attachment  to  the  president  and  his  duty  to  the 
country;  saw  him  dismissed  from  office,  because  he  would  not 
violate  his  conscientious  obligations,  and  came  into  his  place,  to  do 
what  he  could  not,  honorably,  and  would  not  perform.  A  son  of 
one  of  the  fathers  of  democracy,  by  an  administration  professing 
to  be  democratic,  was  expelled  from  office,  and  his  place  supplied 
by  a  gentleman,  who,  throughout  his  whole  career,  has  been  uni- 
formly opposed  to  democracy ! — a  gentleman  who,  at  another  epoch 
of  the  republic,  when  it  was  threatened  with  civil  war,  and  a  disso- 
lution of  the  Union,  voted  (although  a  resident  of  a  slave  state),  in 
tlie  leo-islature  of  Maryland,  against  the  admission  of  Missouri  into 
the  Union  without  a  restriction  incompatible  with  her  rights  as  a 
member  of  the  confederacy!  Mr.  Duane  was  dismissed  because 
the  solemn  convictions  of  his  duty  would  not  allow  him  to  conform 
to  the  president's  will — because  his  logic  did  not  bring  his  mind  to 
the  same  conclusions  with  those  of  the  logic  of  a  venerable  old  gen- 
tleman, inhabiting  a  white  house  not  distant  from  the  capitol — be- 
cause his  watch  [here  Mr.  Clay  held  up  his  own]  did  not  keep 
time  with  that  of  the  president.  He  was  dismissed  under  that  de- 
testable system  of  proscription  for  opinion's  sake,  which  has  finally 
dared  to  intrude  itself  into  the  halls  of  Congress — a  system  under 
vv^hich  three  unoffending  clerks,  the  husbands  of  wives,  the  fathers 
of  families,  dependent  on  them  for  support,  without  the  slightest 
imputation  of  delinquency,  have  been  recently  unceremoniously 
discharged,  and  driven  out  to  beggary,  by  a  man,  himself  the  sub- 
stitute of  a  meritorious  officer,  who  has  not  been  in  this  city  a 
period  equal  to  one  monthly  revolution  of  the  moon!  I  tell  our 
secretary  [said  Mr.  Clay,  raising  his  voice],  that,  if  he  touch  a 
single  hair  of  the  head  of  any  one  of  the  clerks  of  the  senate  (I 
am  sure  he  is  not  disposed  to  do  it),  on  account  of  his  opinions, 
political  or  religious,  if  no  other  member  of  the  senate  does  it,  I 
will  instantly  submit  a  resolution  for  his  own  dismission. 

"The  secretary  ought  to  have  communicated  all  these  things — 
he  ought  to  have  stated  that  the  cabinet  was  divided  two  and  two, 
and  one  of  the  members  [Mr.  Cass,  secretary  of  war]  equally  di- 
vided with  himself  on  the  question,  willing  to  be  put  into  either 
scale.  He  ought  to  have  given  a  full  account  of  this,  the  most 
important  act  of  executive  authority  since  the  origin  of  the  gov- 
ernment— he  should  have  stated  with  what  unsullied  honor  his  pred- 
ecessor retired  from  office,  and  on  what  degrading  conditions  he 
accepted  his  vacant  place.  When  a  momentous  proceeding  like 
this,  varying  the  constitutional  distribution  of  the  powers  of  the 
legislative  and  executive  departments,  was  resolved  on,  the  minis- 
ters against  whose  advice  it  was  determined,  should  have  resigned 
their  stations.     No  ministers  of  any  monarch   in   Europe,   under 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  106 

similar  circumstances,  would  have  retained  the  seals  of  office. 
And  if,  as  nobody  doubts,  there  is  a  cabal  behind  the  curtain,  with- 
out ciiaracter  and  without  responsibility,  feeding  the  passions,  stimu- 
lating the  prejudices,  and  moulding  the  actions  of  the  incumbent 
of  the  presidential  office,  it  was  an  additional  reason  for  their  resig- 
nations. There  is  not  a  maitre  cfhotel  in  Christendom,  who,  if 
the  scullions  were  put  into  command  in  the  parlor  and  dining- 
room,  woidd  not  scorn  to  hold  his  place,  and  fling  it  up  in  disgust 
with  indignant  pride!" 

When  a  man  is  forced  to  give  any  reasons  but  the  true  and 
proper  ones,  for  his  own  conduct,  and  is  deeply  interested  in  ma- 
king out  his  justification,  it  should  not  be  deemed  strange,  if  he 
accumulates  incongruous,  illogical,  and  even  absurd  statements. 
It  is  not  proposed  here  to  follow  out  minutely  that  concatenation 
of  reasoning,  in  the  secretary's  report,  the  analysis  of  which  is  given 
in  the  preceding  chapter  ;  but  only  to  nodce  a  iem  of  the  points 
more  worthy  of  consideration.  Why  the  secretary  should  have 
gone  into  questions  of  law,  politics,  state,  and  into  various  other 
controversies,  actual  and  hypothetical,  when  in  truth  he  could  with 
propriety  have  had  no  other  budget  to  open  but  that  of  a  commer- 
cial agent,  in  a  plain,  straight-forward,  and  matter-of-fact  statement, 
relative  to  financial  economy  on  the  subject  in  hand,  is  perhaps 
sufficiently  obvious  from  the  necessities  of  his  position.  No  man 
knew  better  than  he,  that  he  had  consented  to  be  the  agent  of  vio- 
lating the  consdtution  and  laws  of  the  land.  It  was  therefore  neces- 
sary — since  he  was  compelled  to  reason  on  the  subject — that  he 
should  violate  fact,  logic,  and  even  truth  itself,  to  mystify  the  sub- 
ject, and  embarrass  the  minds  of  those  who  might  be  doomed  to 
give  him  a  hearing. 

His  first  aim  was  to  show,  that  he  alone  had  power  over  the  de- 
posites,  and  that  this  power  was  unconditional  and  absolute.  His 
stages  of  proof  apparently  are,  first,  the  law  touching  the  deposites, 
which  constitutes  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  the  agent  of  removal. 
Next,  law  precedents,  in  the  decisions  of  courts  on  the  relation 
between  the  sovereignty  of  a  state  and  bank  corporations,  which  is 
determined  to  be  a  contract.  Thirdly,  that  the  stockholders  of  the 
l)ank,  by  incorporating,  under  this  law,  had  subscribed  to  this  ab- 
solute power  of  the  secretary.  Without  questioning  the  grant  of 
power  by  the  law  to  the  secretary,  or  the  validity  of  the  principle 
alleged  to  have  been  decided  by  the  courts  as  to  the  parties  in  the 
contract,  or  the  fact  of  the  stockholders  of  the  bank  being  one  of 


106  REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES. 

the  parties,  and  the  sovereignty  of  the  United  Slates  the  other — 
"  sovereignty"  is  the  secretary's  term,  and  there  is  no  ohjection  to 
allow  him  the  term  government,  as  sovereignty  is  somewhat  of  an 
abstraction — still,  it  is  not  easy  to  see  how  the  secretary,  as  an 
agent  of  government,  strictly  of  Congress,  should  be  able  to  estab- 
lish himself  in  the  position  of  a  third  and  independent  party,  having 
rights  and  powers  in  relation  to  the  stockholders  of  the  bank,  which 
bis  employers  had  not.  He  does  this  manifestly  by  his  own  forced 
construction  of  the  language  of  the  law,  which  must  fall  at  the  first 
glance  of  his  position  and  functions  as  an  agent,  and  only  an 
agent,  acting  under  the  authority  and  orders  of  his  principals,  one 
part  of  which  doubtless  is  the  law  in  question,  the  construction  of 
which  should  be  reasonable,  and  not  violate  recognised  and  long- 
established  principles,  whose  existence  and  influence  framed  this 
law,  and  surrounded  and  guarded  it  as  a  new  regulation,  to  forbid 
misconstruction  or  perversion.  It  is  certain  that  it  could  not  be 
construed  to  invest  the  secretary  with  powers  not  derived  from  his 
employers,  who  were  the  authors  of  this  law — much  less  to  make 
him  superior  to  them.  It  is  obvious,  that  he  could  have  no  power 
not  derived  from  his  principals. 

The  secretary,  in  his  reasonings,  occasionally  advances  a  prin- 
ciple, about  which  there  can  be  no  controversy.  For  example, 
that  "  the  right  of  the  secretary  to  designate  the  place  of  deposite 
was  always  necessarily  subject  to  the  control  of  Congress  ;"  and 
the  only  wonder  is,  that  the  man  who  knew  so  well  how  to  state 
the  rule,  should  be  capable  of  disregarding  it,  and  persist  in  it  to 
the  last,  by  a  continuous  act  of  usurpation.  But  the  necessity  of 
the  unfortunate  man's  position,  in  relation  to  the  president,  was  the 
difficulty  under  which  he  labored.  Video  mcliora,  yroboque ;  scd 
deteriora  sequor.  A  man  is  to  be  pitied,  who  has  to  struggle  so 
hard  against  his  reason  and  his  conscience.  The  secretary  darts 
from  right  to  wrong,  and  from  wrong  to  right,  like  a  buzzing  top 
spun  from  the  hand  of  a  boy,  and  stands  on  his  foot  about  as  long. 
No  sooner  had  he  uttered  the  very  excellent  truth  above,  taking  up 
his  station  with  all  fidelity  at  the  feet  of  Congress,  than  he  begins 
to  think  of  his  relation  to  the  president,  and  flies  back  to  his  mas- 
ter, renouncing  the  authority  just  acknowledged  :  "  As  the  secre- 
tary of  the  treasury  presides  over  one  of  the  executive  departments 
of  the  government,  and  his  power  over  this  subject  forms  a  part  of 
the  executive  duties  of  his  office,  the  manner  in  which  it  is  exer- 
cised must  be  sithjcct  to  the  supervision  of  the  officer  [he  hardly 


REMOVAL  OF  THE  DEPOSITES.  107 

dare  say  president]  to  whom  the  constitution  has  confided  the  whole 
executive  power,  and  has  required  to  take  care  that  the  h\ws  he 
faithl'ully  executed."  Certainly,  it  can  not  be  denied,  that  he  is 
fast  by  the  president  now,  however  devious  may  have  been  the  path 
by  which  he  arrived. 

It  is  melancholy  to  observe,  what  strategy  is  necessary  to  make 
out  a  case  known  to  be  wrong — how  a  man  of  logic  and  law  will 
take  refuge  under  equivoques  and  flimsy  appearances,  to  support 
an  absurdity  !  Did  not  Mr.  Taney  know,  that,  as  secretary  of  the 
treasury,  he  was  an  agent  of  Congress,  and  not  of  the  executive 
branch  of  the  government  ?  Why,  then,  does  he  take  advantage 
of  the  facts,  that  he  is  selected  by  the  president,  as  the  law  directs, 
to  fill  that  place  ;  that  he  presides  over  what  is  commonly  called 
an  executive  department ;  that  he  is  under  the  supervision  of  the 
president ;  that  his  bureau  happens  to  have  the  accident  of  propin- 
quity to  the  executive  mansion  ; — w  by,  on  these  accounts,  does  he 
presume  to  suggest  the  idea — in  covert  language  indeed — thai  he 
is,  therefore,  bound  to  obey  the  orders  of  the  president,  in  violation 
of  all  law?  Did  not  Mr.  Taney  know,  that  the  supervision  of  the 
president,  in  regard  to  his  office  and  functions,  could  lawfully  ex- 
tend no  further,  than  to  see,  that  he  discharged  his  duties  faithfully, 
according  to  hiw,  as  an  agent  of  Congress,  and  a  servant  of  the 
public  V  It  is  impossible,  that  he,  or  any  other  man,  should  recon- 
cile the  position  he  here  takes  up,  with  the  rule  he  had  just  laid 
down,  that  "the  right  of  the  secretary  to  designate  the  place  of 
deposiie,  was  always  subject  to  the  control  of  Congress ;"  for  he 
has  now  given  it  all  over  into  the  hands  of  the  president. 

Precisely  the  same  paradox  appears  in  the  following  sentence, 
the  reasoning  of  which  seems  well  nigh  to  have  set  the  secretary 
right :  "  The  power  over  the  place  of  deposite  for  the  public  money, 
would  seem  properly  to  belong  to  the  legislative  department  of  the 
government,  and  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  why  the  authority  to  with- 
draw it  from  this  bank  was  confided  exclusively  to  the  executive^ 
li  was  not  so  confided,  Mr.  Secretary,  except  by  your  own  forced 
construction  of  the  law,  and  by  your  application  of  misnomers  to 
confound  the  truth.  Admitting  that  the  power  was  in  the  secre- 
(;iry,  as  the  proxy  and  agent  of  Congress,  what  right  or  authority 
liad  he  to  identify  himself  with  the  president,  by  a  sly  use  of  the 
word  "executive?"  He  jumps  to  conclusions  over  chasms  that 
should  break  an  honest  man's  neck. 

it  is  curious  to  observe  how  the  secretary  establishes  the  absurd- 


108  REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES. 

ity,  that  he  had  more  power  than  his  masters,  and  that  he  could 
do  what  they  had  no  right  to  do.  It  was  doubtless  true,  that  Con- 
gress had  no  right,  directly  or  indirectly,  by  proxy  or  otherwise, 
to  withhold  or  withdraw  the  public  deposites  from  the  bank  of  the 
United  States,  during  the  term  of  the  compact,  so  long  as  the  bank 
was  known  to  be  a  safe  depository,  and  so  long  as  it  faithfully  dis- 
charged all  its  duties  as  a  party  ;  and  that  was  one  of  the  grounds 
of  charge  against  the  secretary  and  the  president,  first,  that  they 
had  usurped  a  function  of  Congress,  and  next,  that  they  had  thereby, 
and  in  addition,  caused  the  faith  of  a  compact  to  be  broken.  But 
the  most  amusing  part  of  the  secretary's  reasoning,  is,  that,  having 
the  power,  he  was  bound  to  exercise  it :  "  It  is  the  duty  of  the  ex- 
ecutive departments  of  the  government  to  exercise  the  powers  con- 
ferred on  them."  By  which  rule  the  hangman's  office  ought  not 
to  be  disappointed,  and  he  is  entitled — bound — to  make  a  victim 
of  the  first  man  he  can  catch,  if  the  courts  fail  to  do  their  duty,  in 
handing  one  over  to  satisfy  his  claims.  This  propensity  to  the 
use  of  power,  and  this  conscientious  application  of  all  powers  con- 
ferred, occasion  or  no  occasion,  according  to  the  executive  rule  of 
that  day,  "  as  he  understands"  and  is  pleased  to  interpret  the  law, 
seems,  in  this  instance,  to  have  been  discharged  to  the  utmost 
extent. 

The  way  in  which  this  financier,  this  man  of  business,  appointed 
to  a  specific  duty,  regulated  by  law,  assumes  to  decide  questions 
of  state,  going  back  behind  his  masters,  originating  and  executing 
measures  which  they  had  neglected  to  provide,  will  appear  from 
the  following  extract : — 

"  It  must  be  the  duty  of  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  to  with- 
draw the  deposites  from  that  institution  [the  bank  of  the  United 
States],  whenever  the  change  would  in  any  chgrec  promote  the 
public  interest  [according  to  the  secretary's  opinion].  It  is  not 
necessary  that  the  deposites  should  be  unsafe,  in  order  to  justify 
the  removal.  The  authority  to  remove,  is  not  limited  to  such  a 
contingency.  The  bank  may  be  perfectly  solvent,  and  prepared 
to  meet  promptly  all  demands  upon  it.  It  may  have  been  faithful 
in  the  performance  of  its  duties,  and  yet  the  public  interest  [as  de- 
termined by  the  secretary]  may  require  the  deposites  to  be  with- 
drawn. And  as  that  can  not  be  done  without  the  action  of  this 
department  [so  the  secretary  had  decided,  and  assumed  that  he 
could  do  it],  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  would  betray  the  trust 
confided  to  him  [that  must  be  a  high  discretion,  that  comprehends 
a  duty  which  the  authority  requiring  it.  is  not  competent  to  dis- 
charge], if  he  did  not  cause  the  deposites  to  be  made  elsewhere, 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  109 

whenever  [in  his  opinion]  the  change  would  advance  the  puhlic 
interest,  or  puhHc  convenience  [even  though  it  be  but  a  sright  con- 
venience, the  secretary,  with  his  ample  powers,  can  do  it,  and  with 
all  his  scrupulousness,  is  bound  to  do  it].  The  safety  of  the  de- 
posites,  the  ability  of  the  bank  to  meet  its  engagements,  its  fidelity 
in  the  performance  of  its  obligations,  are  only  a  part  of  the  consid- 
erations by  which  his  judgment  must  be  guided.  The  general 
interest  and  convenience  of  the  people,  must  regulate  his  con- 
duct." 

It  was  very  fortunate  for  a  Congress,  that  could  not  understand 
"  the  general  interest  and  convenience  of  the  people,"  and  that  did 
not  know  how  to  legislate  for  these  ends,  to  have  such  a  secretary  ! 
!t  was  still  more  fortunate,  that,  having  expressed  an  erroneous 
opinion,  and  recorded  a  virtual  order,  on  this  subject,  the  president 
had  provided  them  with  a  secretary  of  paramount  powers,  as  well 
as  paramount  sagacity  and  discretion — a  secretary  of  "  uncondi- 
tional and  absolute  power  !" 

Not  only  was  this  secretary  such  a  profound  adept  in  political 
science,  but  he  achieved  the  solution  of  a  problem  in  mathematics, 
never  before  discovered,  that  a  part  is  equal  to  the  whole,  and  the 
whole  not  greater  than  a  part,  under  the  latter  as  the  form  of  his 
])roposition.  Mr.  Crawford,  as  the  head  of  the  treasury,  in  1817, 
had  made  some  use  of  the  state  banks — for  his  own  convenience 
probably — as  places  of  deposite.  Mr.  Taney  arrives  at  the  con- 
clusion :  "  Nor  can  any  distinction  be  taken  between  the  transfer 
of  a  iHirt,  and  the  transfer  of  the  whole  sum,  remaining  on  depos- 
ite. The  language  of  the  charter  recognises  no  such  distinction." 
The  language  of  the  law  was,  that  the  deposites  should  be  made 
in  the  bank  of  the  United  States.  The  discovery  of  Mr.  Taney 
is,  that  it  is  the  same  thing  not  to  use  the  United  States  bank  at 
all,  as  to  use  other  banks  to  a  small  extent,  when  the  fiscal  opera- 
tions of  (he  government  required  it,  or  for  any  other  reason  ;  and 
that,  if  Mr.  Crawford  violated  the  law  in  part,  the  path  was  open 
for  Mr.  Taney  to  violate  the  whole  with  impunity. 

The  length  of  the  secretary's  lecture  to  Congress,  and  the  accu- 
mulation oi  his  reasons — apparently  with  a  view  to  supply  by  their 
number  what  they  might  chance  to  lack  in  separate  force — is  per- 
haps some  apology  for  seeming  to  contradict  in  one  stage  of  his 
argument,  what  he  advances  in  another.  For  example,  he  states, 
tfiat  "the  executive  department  can  not  be  allowed  to  sjprciilute  on 
the  chances  of  future  change  by  the  legislative  authority,"  from 
which  no  man  could  reasonably  dissent.     But  immediately  after- 


110  REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES. 

ward,  when,  in  violation  of  this  rule,  he  comes  to  "  speculate"  on 
the  results  of  the  elections,  and  the  questions  decided  by  them, 
according  to  his  "speculations,"  he  seems  to  think  it  incumbent 
upon  him  to  "speculate"  on  future  legislation,  and  to  regulate  his 
conduct  accordingly.  "  The  manifestations  of  public  opinion,  in- 
stead of  being  favorable  to  a  renewal  [of  the  bank  charter],  have 
been  decidedly  to  the  contrary.  Under  these  circumstances,  I 
could  not  have  been  justified  in  anticipating  any  change  in  the  ex- 
isting laws  ;"  and  therefore  he  was  justified  in  breaking  covenant 
with  the  bank,  which  was  entided  by  law  and  compact  to  the  use 
of  the  public  deposites  till  the  3d  of  March,  1836,  about  two  years 
and  a  half  after  they  were  removed.  These,  it  must  be  confessed, 
were  somewhat  bold  speculations,  invading  the  domain  of  moral 
casuistry,  not  much  to  its  security  or  honor.  "  It  is  obvious," 
says  the  secretary,  as  if  a  question  of  morals  were  not  concerned 
in  it,  "  that  the  interests  of  the  country  would  not  be  promoted  by 
permitting  the  deposites  of  the  public  money  to  continue  in  the 
bank,  until  its  charter  expired."  There  might  be  a  difference  of 
opinion  on  the  question  here  so  gratuitously  and  authoritatively 
decided — though  there  ought  not  to  be  a  question  as  to  the  obliga- 
tion of  contracts.  Morals,  in  this  place,  did  not  seem  to  come 
within  the  purview  of  the  secretary,  though,  in  a  subsequent  stage 
of  his  argument,  he  would  seem  to  be  very  anxious  lest  morals 
should  be  injured  by  another  party,  and  the  people  corrupted. 
With  such  a  certificate  of  his  qualifications,  who  could  object,  that 
he  should  preach  a  sermon  on  this  topic,  or  remove  the  deposites 
as  a  conservator  of  morals  ? 

If  it  was  not  positively  gratifying  to  the  pride  and  self-respect 
of  Congress,  and  even  if  they  were  in  some  degree  ungrateful,  it 
could  not  but  be  regarded  as  a  labor-saving  operation,  that  the 
secretary  should  have  been  able  to  decide  for  them  the  constitu- 
tional question,  in  regard  to  a  bank  of  the  United  States,  which  he 
did  very  summarily,  on  his  own  authority,  ranking  it,  of  course, 
among  the  grounds  of  his  own  action.  If  this  high  duty  did  not 
exactly  comport  with  a  business  document,  on  matters  of  finance, 
it  was  nevertheless  of  some  importance. 

The  secretary,  laying  on  the  shelf  the  moral  question  involved 
in  the  faith  of  contracts,  apparently  as  one  unworthy  of  considera- 
tion, proceeds  to  discuss  the  financial  economy  of  the  bank,  in 
which  also  he  thinks  he  finds  ample  justification  of  the  measure 
which,  in  the  use  of  his  "  unconditional  and  absolute  power,"  he 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  Ill 

had  adopted.  His  first  drift  carries  him  directly  on  the  credit  of 
the  bank,  to  show,  first,  that  it  was  borrowed  from  its  relations  to 
the  government  of  the  United  States  ;  and  next,  as  a  consequence, 
in  the  operation  of  the  measure  executed  by  him,  that  it  ought  to 
have  very  little  or  no  credit  at  all.  This,  certainly,  if  it  had  fully 
succeeded,  would  have  had  a  momentous  influence  on  the  com- 
mercial afHiir.^  of  the  country,  all  of  which  were  more  or  less  con- 
necrted  with  ihe  credit  of  this  bank  ;  and  with  all  abatements,  arising 
from  the  use  of  the  sounder  judgment  of  the  wide  community,  did 
have  a  tremendous  influence  as  a  shock  to  general  credit.  This 
wa.~  taking  care  of  "  the  interests  and  convenience  of. the  people," 
with  a  vengeance  !  The  secretary  not  only  severs,  by  violence, 
the  stipulated  connexion  between  the  government  and  the  bank, 
when  the  convenience  and  prosperity  of  the  whole  people  depended 
on  its  credit,  but  he  declares  that  its  credit  was  borrowed  from  this 
relation,  now  no  longer  existing!  That  this  was  in  some  sense, 
and  in  some  degree,  true,  could  not  be  controverted.  And  hence 
the  stupendous  consequences,  of  a  disastrous  nature,  which  came 
down  so  suddenly  on  the  people  of  the  country.  In  fact  the  bank 
was  sound,  and  no  man  of  competent  information  ever  doubted  it. 
But  to  excite  doubts,  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  by  having  its 
credit  assailed  from  such  a  quarter,  could  not  fail  to  produce  the 
results  that  followed.  It  moreover  forced  an  exigency  on  the  bank, 
which  compelled  it  to  a  course  that  must  force  a  crisis  on  the  com- 
mercial affairs  of  the  country.  .  From  a  patron,  friend,  and  ally  of 
the  bank,  with  mutual  interests,  the  government  had  become  an 
open  and  declared  enemy,  breaking  faith,  and  mustering  its  reso- 
lution and  energies  for  an  exterminating  war — a  course  of  treatment 
which  forced  the  bank  into  a  posture  of  defence,  in  the  use  of  such 
means  as  were  in  its  power,  and  between  the  two,  the  government, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  bank  On  the  other,  the  people  must  be 
victims  of  the  conflict.  .  The  two  parties  acting  in  harmony,  ac- 
cording to  the  intention  of  the  original  compact,  could  not  but  sub- 
serve the  interest  and  convenience  of  the  public  ;  but  the  moment 
that  one  of  these  parties  broke  covenant,  and  declared  war,  each 
of  them  having  connexions  with  the  whole  country,  the  controversy 
must  necessarily  affect  the  people  disastrously.  After  this,  all  the 
operations  of  the  bank  had  an  eye  on  the  government,  and  all  the 
operations  of  the  government  an  eye  on  the  bank.  Neither  could 
any  longer  consult  the  general  good.  On  the  part  of  the  bank,  the 
principle  was  that  of  defence  ;  on   the  part  of  the  government,  it 


112  REMOVAL    OF    THE     DEPOSITES. 

was  a  war  of  extermination.  No  matter  which  course  the  bank 
adopted,  whether  by  an  extension  or  contraction  of  its  credits,  the 
people  must  soon  feel  it.  If  by  the  former,  it  would  only  aggra- 
vate the  evil  ;  if  by  the  latter,,  the  calamity  must  come  instantly, 
and  sooner  or  later,  with  distressing  effect  on  the  whole  people. 
It  could  not  prudently  do  the  former ;  but,  like  a  vigilant  mariner, 
who,  watching  the  rising  storm,  takes  in  sail,  and  gets  all  things 
ready,  so  the  bank  began  to  prepare  for  that  contraction  of  business 
to  which  it  was  compelled,  by  the  violation  of  contract  on  the  part 
of  the  government,  in  withholding  and  withdrawing  the  public  de- 
posites,  on  the  use  of  which  for  two  and  a  half  years  to  come  the 
bank  had  depended,  and  made  its  arrangements  accordingly — for 
which  it  had  paid  a  valuable  consideration,  in  an  original  bonus  of 
a  million  and  a  half,  and  in  performing  all  the  fiscal  operations  of 
the  government  without  charge  for  upward  of  seventeen  years; 
next,  by  the  injury  of  its  credit  in  all  the  assaults  of  the  govern- 
ment upon  it,  so  long  sustained,  and  now  falling  heavily  by  official 
and  public  accusations,  associated  in  their  influence  with  the  posi- 
tive fact  of  removing  the  deposites  ;  and  lastly,  by  the  consequent 
necessity  imposed  of  contracting  its  business  and  collecting  its 
debts,  till  its  liabilities  should  be  brought  within  safe  bounds.  All 
the  indications  of  the  temper  and  meditated  action  of  the  executive, 
after  the  adjournment  of  Congress  in  the  spring  of  1S33,  had  fore- 
shadowed coming  events,  and  the  bank  had  begun  to  take  measures 
for  protection,  weeks  and  months  in  advance  of  the  publication  of 
the  president's  manifesto  of  the  19th  of  September.  .  These  neces- 
sary precautions  of  the  bank  of  the  United  States,  affected  all  the 
banks  of  the  country  in  the  same  way,  and  it  was  admitted  by  the 
secretary  of  the  treasury,  in  his  report  to  Congress,  that,  before  the 
1st  of  October,  and  within  four  months  previous,  nineteen  millions 
of  money  had  been  withdrawn  from  circulation  !  This  fact  the 
secretary  presents  as  a  ground  for  his  own  precipitate  action,  alle- 
ging that  this  necessity  of  the  bank  was  a  device,  to  distress  the 
country,  and  enforce  its  claims.  But  every  one  will  see  it  was  a 
necessity,  and  that  this  charge  does  not  come  with  a  very  good 
grace  from  those  who  had  created  it. 

Nineteen  millions  of  dollars  withdrawn  from  the  circulating  me- 
dium of  the  country,  and  the  facilities  and  means  of  business  dimin- 
ished'in  that  amount,  by  the  mere  apprehension  of  the  executive 
measure,  which  was  consummated  on  the  1st  of  October,  by  the 
agency  of  Roger  B.  Taney  !     Of  course,  this  was  but  the  begin- 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  113 

ning  of  trouble.  Small  as  it  was,  it  was  felt  everywhere,  and  began 
to  create  universal  distress.  Credit  was  shocked,  and  confidence, 
in  all  the  commercial  relations  of  society,  was  rapidly  giving  way. 
Every  debtor  trembled,  and  every  creditor  looked  to  his  security. 

But  the  secretary  had  his  charges  direct  in  store  against  the 
bank.  Since  nothing  new  of  any  import  had  transpired  since  the 
adjournment  of  the  twenty-second  Congress,  it  might,  perhaps,  be 
considered  a  sufficient  answer  to  the  secretary's  charges,  to  point 
to  the  fact,  that,  notwithstanding  all  the  clamor  which  the  execu- 
tive had  raised  against  the  bank,  and  in  view  of  the  reports  from 
committees  of  investigation  into  its  condition  and  affairs,  from  both 
branches  of  the  government,  the  house  of  representatives  of  that 
(the  previous)  Congress,  had  solemnly  pronounced  their  confidence 
in  the  bank,  by  a  resolution  to  that  effect.  But  the  bank  had  for 
years  been  forced  to  contend  against  the  hostility  of  the  president 
of  the  United  States — ever  since  1829 — and  like  every  party  as- 
sailed, it  had,  injustice  to  itself,  taken  some  measures  of  vindica- 
tion. These  were  its  faults.  Because  it  would  not  lie  down  and 
die,  at  the  breath  of  the  president,  it  ought  to  be  killed.  The  rela- 
tion between  the  parties  was  unnatural.  It  was  created  in  amity  ; 
it  had  been  forced  into  hostility.  There  was  a  covenant  which 
bound  the  bank  to  perform  certain  functions  for  the  government, 
and  die  government  to  guard  its  rights,  so  long  as  it  discharged  its 
duties.  The  bank  was  the  creation,  the  offspring  of  government, 
and  could  only  live  and  be  useful  by  the  favor  of  its  parent.  When 
the  latter  turned  round  to  smite  and  destroy  it,  the  original  relation 
was  changed.  Everything  which  the  bank  did  in  self-defence,  was 
charged  as  a  crime  ;  and  the  secretary  brought  forward  facts  of  this 
kind,  and  arrayed  them  under  the  denomination  of  offences.  Not 
unlikely  the  administration  of  the  bank  had  its  defects — its  positive 
vices.  The  exchange  committee,  hovvever,  which  was  alleged  as 
its  great  crime,  was  manifestly  one  of  the  modes  adopted  to  defend 
itself  against  executive  espionage  and  persecution.  It  should  not 
be  surprising,  if  such  hostility  had  driven  it  into  some  improper 
and  unjustifiable  modes  of  defence.  It  must,  indeed,  have  been 
very  bad,  if  it  was  more  improper,  or  more  unjustifiable,  than  the 
unnatural  war  that  was  waged  against  it. 

It  was  charged  by  the  secretary,  that  the  president  of  the  bank 
had  been  authorized  to  cause  "  to  be  prepared  such  documents 
and  papers  as  may  communicate  to  the  people  information  in  regard 
to  the  nature  and  operations  of  the  bank."     If  no  party,  individual 

Vol.  II.— 8  i 


114  REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES. 

or  corporate,  shall  ever  do  anything  that  savors  more  of  treason 
than  this,  the  republic  may  yet  be  safe.  But  the  secretary  says  : 
"  There  is  sufficient  evidence  to  show,  that  the  bank  has  been,  and 
still  is,  seeking  to  obtain  political  power,  and  has  used  its  money 
for  the  purpose  of  influencing  the  election  of  the  public  servants  ;" 
and  he  concludes  by  invoking  Congress,  on  these  and  other  ac- 
counts, "to  sustain  a  measure,  which  the  best  interests  of  the  country 
called  for,  and  which  had  become  absolutely  necessary  to  preserve 
untainted  its  free  institutions,  and  to  secure  the  liberties  and  happi- 
ness of  the  people." 

It  can  not  be  denied,  that  this  functionary  has  gone  over  a  broad 
field  to  make  out  a  report  on  finance  !  His  appropriate  duty  was 
one  that  regarded  dollars  and  cents.  He  was  required  to  give  a 
history  of  the  operations  of  the  public  treasury  for  the  last  year, 
and  to  present  such  facts  and  considerations  as  might  aid  Congress 
in  legislating  for  that  department  in  time  to  come.  He  was  also 
required  to  give  the  reasons  of  a  financier,  and  of  a  commercial 
agent,  for  removing  the  deposites.  It  was,  however,  all  and  exclu- 
sively a  matter  of  business.  But  he  begins  by  announcing  a  ques- 
tionable fact,  to  wit,  that  he  had  removed  the  deposites,  when  it 
was  in  evidence,  that  he  was  merely  passive  in  that  transaction, 
except  so  far  as  his  clerical  agency  might  be  concerned.  In  the 
outset  he  occupied  a  false  position — and  considering  the  task  be- 
fore him,  it  was  not  easy  for  him  to  get  into  a  true  one.  And  it 
was  false  in  more  senses  than  one  :  false,  because  the  character  in 
which  he  presented  himself,  as  the  responsible  agent,  was  false  : 
false,  because,  while  acting  under  the  orders  of  one  branch  of  the 
government,  he  was  forced  to  take  up  the  position  of  being  respon- 
sible to  another ;  false,  because  he  was  not,  in  fact,  known  to  the 
body  before  which  he  appeared  ;  false,  because,  being  thus  un- 
known, he  could  not  with  propriety  speak  to  them  ;  false,  because 
he  was  no  otherwise  responsible  for  the  measure  he  attempted  to 
vindicate  as  his  own,  than  as  having  consented  to  be  the  instrument 
of  carrying  it  out ;  false,  because  there  was  a  constitutional  barrier 
in  his  path,  and  laws  built  thereon,  which  he  could  not  remove 
without  violence,  nor  surmount  without  endangering  himself;  and 
false,  because,  in  all  that  he  did,  he  was  forced  to  attempt  impos- 
sibilities. 

After  citing  the  law  under  which  he  professed  to  have  acted,  he 
refers  to  judicial  decisions,  to  determine  the  abstraction  of  the  rela- 
tion between  the  abstraction  of  the  sovereignty  of  a  state  and  the 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  115 

abstraction  of  a  corporate  body  under  the  state.  From  these 
premises,  he  proceeds  to  establish  himself  in  the  position,  that  was 
necessary  to  his  end,  viz.,  that  he,  and  nobody  else,  was  invested 
with  power  to  do  this  thing.  It  is  true,  that  he  afterward,  in  some 
sort,  allies  himself  to  the  president,  and  seems  to  share  authority 
with  him.  But  tliat  point  he  approaches  with  cautious  reserve  and 
manifest  diffidence.  He  comes  no  nearer  to  him,  than  to  "the 
OFFICER  to  whom  tlie  constitution  has  confided  the  whole  execu- 
tive power" — a  convenient  abstraction  for  the  occasion.  He  is 
often  right,  and  often  wrong — speaks  a  truth,  and  then  flies  from 
it,  as  if  too  much  familiarity  would  be  perilous.  Having  once 
embarked  in  this  cause,  it  was  not  the  fault  of  his  intellect,  nor  a 
defect  of  knowledge,  nor  want  of  research,  that  he  was  not  able  to 
construct  a  consistent  and  sound  argument.  The  best  thing  he 
could  do  was  to  say  much,  and  be  understood  as  little  as  possible 
— to  range  over  a  wide  field,  where  few  could  follow  him — to  dis- 
cuss law,  politics,  state  affairs,  elections,  liberty,  free  institutions — 
anything  that  did  not  belong  to  the  subject.  For,  wherever  he 
travelled,  and  whatever  he  said,  he  was  in  a  false  position. 

But  the  most  remarkable  feature  of  this  whole  affair,  is,  that  this 
secretary  of  the  treasury  was  no  secretary — that  Congress  should 
be  obliged  to  hear  such  a  lecture  from  a  mere  locum  tenens,  who 
had  been  thrust  into  a  place  to  commit  an  outrage  on  the  constitu- 
tion and  laws,  and  that  he  should  be  permitted  to  come  before  the 
body  that  was  wronged,  to  defend  the  act  by  which  their  rights 
were  trampled  in  the  dust !  He  was  never  expected  to  be  secre- 
tary, as  is  proved  from  the  facts,  that  his  name  was  withheld  so 
long  from  the  senate,  and  that  the  moment  it  was  sent  in,  it  was 
sent  out. 

The  following  are  a  few  extracts  from  Mr.  Clay  : — 

'•  Sir,  I  am  surprised  and  alarmed  at  the  new  source  of  execu- 
tive power,  which  is  found  in  the  residt  of  a  presidential  election. 
I  had  supposed  that  the  constitution  and  the  laws  were  the  sole 
source  of  executive  authority  ;  that  the  constitution  could  only  be 
amended  in  the  mode  which  it  has  itself  prescribed  ;  that  tho' 
issue  of  a  presidential  election,  was  merely  to  place  the  chief 
magistrate  in  the  post  assigned  to  him  ;  and  that  he  had  neitlier 
more  nor  less  power,  in  consequence  of  the  election,  than  the  con- 
stitution defines  and  delegates.  But  it  seems  that  if,  prior  to  an 
election,  certain  opinions,  no  matter  how  ambiguously  put  fortli 
by  a  candidate,  are  known  to  the  people,  these  loose  opinions,  \n 
virtue  of  the  election,  incorporate  themselves  with  the  constitution, 


116  REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES. 

and  afterward  are  to  be  regarded  and  expounded  as  parts  of  the 
instrument ! 

"  I  have  rarely  seen  any  state  paper  characterized  by  so  little 
gravity,  dignity,  and  circumspection,  as  the  report  displays.  The 
secretary  is  perfectly  reckless  in  his  assertions  of  matters  of  fact, 
and  culpably  loose  in  his  reasoning.  *  *  *  # 

"  He  [the  secretary]  represents  the  bank  as  endeavoring  to 
operate  on  the  public,  by  alternate  bribery  and  oppression,  with 
the  same  object  in  both  cases,  of  influencing  the  election,  or  the 
administration  of  the  president.  Why  this  perpetual  reference  of 
all  the  operations  of  the  institution  to  the  executive?  Why  does 
the  executive  think  of  nothing  but  itself"?  It  is  I  !  It  is  I !  It 
is  I,  that  is  meant !   appears  to  be  the  constant  exclamation.  *  *  * 

"  We  have,  Mr.  President,  a  most  wonderful  financier  at  the 
head  of  our  treasury  department.  He  sits  quietly  by  in  the  cabi- 
net, and  witnesses  the  contest  between  his  colleague  and  the  presi- 
dent ;  sees  the  conflict  in  the  mind  of  that  colleague  between  his 
personal  attachment  to  the  president  on  the  one  hand,  and  his  sol- 
emn duty  to  the  public  on  the  other  ;  beholds  the  triumph  of  con- 
.  scientious  obligation ;  contemplates  the  noble  spectacle  of  an  hon- 
est man,  preferring  to  surrender  an  exalted  office  with  all  its  honors 
and  emoluments,  rather  than  betray  the  interests  of  the  people  ; 
witnesses  the  contemptuous  and  insulting  expulsion  of  that  col- 
league from  office  ;  and  then  coolly  enters  the  vacated  place,  with- 
out the  slightest  sympathy  or  the  smallest  emotion !  He  was  in- 
stalled on  the  twenty-third  of  September,  and  by  the  twenty-sixth, 
the  brief  period  of  three  days,  he  discovers  that  the  government 
ojT  the  United  States  had  been  wrong  from  its  origin  ;  that  every 
one  of  his  predecessors  from  Hamilton  down,  including  Gallatin 
(who,  whatever  I  said  of  him  on  a  former  occasion,  and  that  I  do 
not  mean  to  retract,  possessed  more  practical  knowledge  of  cur- 
rency, banks,  and  finance,  than  any  man  I  have  ever  met  in  the 
public  councils),  Dallas,  and  Crawford,  had  been  mistaken  about 
both  the  expediency  and  constitutionality  of  the  bank  ;  that  every 
chief  magistrate,  prior  to  him  whose  patronage  he  enjoyed,  had 
been  wrong  ;  that  the  supreme  court  of  the  United  States,  and  the 
people  of  the  United  vStates,  during  the  thirty-seven  years  that  they 
had  acquiesced  in  or  recognised  the  great  utility  of  a  bank,  were 
all  wrong.  And,  opposing  his  single  opinion  to  their  united  judg- 
ments, he  dismisses  the  bank,  scatters  the  public  money,  and  un- 
dertakes to  regulate  and  purify  the  public  morals,  the  public  press, 
and  popular  elections  ! 

"If  we  examine  the  operations  of  this  modern  Turgot,  in  their 
financial  bearing,  merely,  we  shall  find  still  less  for  approbation. 

•'First:  He  withdraws  the  public  moneys,  where,  by  his  own 
deliberate  admission,  they  were  perfectly  safe,  with  a  bank  of  thirty- 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  117 

five  millions  of  capital,  and  ten  millions  of  specie,  and  places  them 
at  great  hazard  with  banks  of  comparatively  small  capital,  and  but 
little  specie,  of  which  the  Metropolis  bank  is  an  example. 

"Second:  He  withdraws  them  from  a  bank  created  by,  and  over 
which,  the  federal  government  had  ample  control,  and  puts  them  in 
other  banks,  created  by  different  governments,  and  over  which  it 
has  no  control. 

"Third:  He  withdrav.s  them  from  a  bank  in  which  the  Ameri- 
can people,  as  a  stockholder,  were  drawing  their  fair  proportion  of 
interest  accruing  on  loans,  of  which  those  deposites  formed  the 
basis,  and  puts  them  where  the  people  of  the  United  States  draw 
no  interest. 

"  Fourth  :  From  a  bank  which  has  paid  a  bonus  of  a  million  and 
a  half,  which  the  people  of  the  United  States  may  now  be  liable  to 
refund,  and  puts  '.hem  in  banks  which  have  paid  to  the  American 
people  no  bonus. 

"  Fifth :  Depreciates  the  value  of  stock  in  a  bank  where  the  gen- 
eral government  holds  seven  millions,  and  advances  that  of  banks 
in  whose  stock  it  does  not  hold  a  dollar,  and  whose  aggregate  cap- 
ital does  not  probably  much  exceed  that  very  seven  millions.  And 
finally, 

"Sixth:  He  dismisses  a  bank  whose  paper  circulates  in  the 
greatest  credit  throughout  the  Union,  and  in  foreign  countries,  and 
engages  in  the  public  service  banks  whose  paper  has  but  a  limited 
and  local  circulation  in  their  'immediate  vicinities.' 

"  These  are  immediate  and  inevitable  results.  How  much  that 
large  and  long-standing  item  of  unavailable  funds,  annually  reported 
to  Congress,  will  be  swelled  and  extended,  remains  to  be  devel- 
oped by  time. 

"And  now,  Mr.  President,  what,  under  all  these  circumstances, 
is  it  our  duty  to  do  ?  Is  there  a  senator,  who  can  hesitate  to  affirm, 
in  the  language  of  the  resolution,  that  the  president  has  assumed  a 
dangerous  power  over  the  treasury  of  the  United  States,  not  granted 
to  him  by  the  constitution  and  the  laws;  and  that  the  reasons  as- 
signed for  the  act,  by  the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  are  insufiicieni 
and  unsatisfactory? 

"The  eyes  and  the  hopes  of  the  American  people  are  anxiously 
turned  to  Congress.  They  feel  that  they  have  been  deceived  and 
insulted;  their  confidence  abused;  their  interests  betrayed;  and 
their  liberties  in  danger.  They  see  a  rapid  and  alarming  concen- 
tration of  all  power  in  one  man's  hands.  They  see  that,  by  the 
exercise  of  the  positive  authority  of  the  executive,  and  his  negative 
power  exerted  over  Congress,  the  will  of  one  man  alone  prevails, 
and  governs  the  republic.  The  question  is  no  longer  what  laws 
will  Congress  pass,  but  what  will  the  executive  not  veto?  The 
president,  and  not  Congress,  is  addressed  for  legislative  action. 
We  have  seen  a  corporation,  charged  ^vith  the  execution  of  a  great 


118  REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES. 

national  work,  dismiss  an  experienced,  faitiiful,  and  zealoos  presi- 
dent, afterward  testify  to  his  ability  by  a  voluntary  resolution,  and 
reward  his  extraordinary  services  by  a  large  gratuity,  and  appoint 
in  his  place  an  executive  favorite,  totally  inexperienced  and  incom- 
petent, to  propitiate  the  president.  We  behold  the  usual  incidents 
of  approaching  tyranny.  The  land  is  filled  with  spies  and  inform- 
ers, and  detraction  and  denunciation  are  the  orders  of  the  day. 
People,  especially  official  incumbents  in  this  place,  no  longer  dare 
speak  in  the  fearless  tones  of  manly  freedom,  but  in  the  cautious 
whispers  of  trembling  slaves.  The  premonitory  symptoms  of  des- 
potism are  upon  us;  and  if  Congress  do  not  apply  an  instanta- 
neous and  effective  remedy,  the  fatal  collapse  will  soon  come  on, 
and  we  shall  die — ignobly  die!  base,  mean,  and  abject  slaves — the 
scorn  and  contempt  of  mankind — unpitied,  unwept,  unmourned!" 

The  resolutions  offered  by  Mr.  Clay  on  the  2Gth  of  December, 
1833,  were  debated,  from  time  to  time,  in  the  senate,  till  the  28th 
of  March,  1334,  when  the  substance  of  them  was  passed,  by  a 
vote  of  26  to  20,  in  the  following  form : — 

'^Resolved,  That  the  president,  in  the  late  executive  proceed- 
ings, in  relation  to  the  public  revenue,  has  assumed  upon  himself 
authority  and  power  not  conferred  by  the  constitution  and  laws,  but 
in  derogation  of  both." 

It  will  be  interesting,  as  well  as  instructive,  in  this  connexion,  to 
observe  the  effects  of  the  removal  of  the  deposites  upon  the  in- 
terests of  the  country,  which  are  incidentally,  and  in  that  way,  most 
impressively,  brought  to  view,  in  the  action  of  Congress  on  sundrv 
petitions  and  memorials,  which  were  preferred  to  that  body  in  the 
early  part  of  1834,  before  the  adjournment  of  that  session  when 
Mr.  Clay's  resolutions  were  debated  in  the  senate.  The  following 
remarks  of  Mr.  Clay,  on  the  7th  of  March,  1834,  made  upon  a 
memorial  from  Philadelphia,  are  in  point,  and  involve  more  history 
than  could  be  given  in  equally  few  words.  The  appeal  to  the 
vice-president  (Mr.  Van  Buren,  ex-officio  president  of  the  senate), 
will  be  regarded  with  much  interest : — 

'•I  have  been  requested  [said  3Ir.  Clay]  by  the  committee  from 
Philadelphia,  charged  with  presenting  die  memorial  to  Congress, 
to  say  a  few  words  on  the  subject;  and  although,  after  the  ample 
and  very  satisfactory  exposition  which  it  has  received  from  the  sen- 
ator from  Massachusetts,  further  observations  are  entirely  unneces- 
sary, I  can  not  deny  myself  the  gratification  of  complying  with  a 
request,  proceeding  from  a  source  so  higlily  worthy  of  respectful 
consideration. 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  119 

"And  what  is  the  remedy  to  be  provided  for  this  most  unhappy 
state  of  the  country?  1  liave  conversed  freely  with  the  members 
of  the  Philadelphia  committee.  They  are  real,  practical,  working 
men — intelligent,  well-acquainted  with  the  general  condition,  and 
with  the  sufferings  of  their  particular  community.  No  one,  who 
has  not  a  heart  of  steel,  can  listen  to  them,  without  feeling  the 
deepest  sympathy  for  the  privations  and  sufferings  unnecessarily 
brought  upon  the  laboring  classes.  Both  the  committee  and  the 
memorial  declare  that  their  reliance  is,  exclusively,  on  the  legisla- 
tive branch  of  the  government.  Mr.  President,  it  is  with  subdued 
feelings  of  the  profoundest  humility  and  mortification  that  I  am 
compelled  to  say,  that,  constituted  as  Congress  now  is,  no  relief 
will  be  afforded  by  it,  unless  its  members  shall  be  enlightened  and 
instructed  by  the  people  themselves.  A  large  portion  of  the  body, 
whatever  may  be  their  private  judgment  upon  the  course  of  the 
president,  believe  it  to  be  their  duty,  at  all  events  safest  for  them- 
selves, to  sustain  him,  without  regard  to  the  consequences  of  hi? 
measures  upon  the  public  interests.  And  nothing  but  clear,  deci- 
ded, and  unequivocal  demonstrations  of  the  popular  disapproba- 
tion of  what  has  been  done,  will  divert  them  from  their  present 
purpose. 

"But  there  is  another  quarter  which  possesses  sufficient  power 
and  influence  to  relieve  the  public  distresses.  In  twenty-four  hours 
the  executive  branch  could  adopt  a  measure  which  would  afford 
an  efficacious  and  substantial  remedy,  and  re-establish  confidence. 
And  those  who,  in  this  chamber,  support  the  administration,  could 
not  render  a  better  service  than  to  repair  to  the  executive  mansion, 
and,  placing  before  the  chief  magistrate  the  naked  and  undisguised 
truth,  prevail  upon  him  to  retrace  his  steps  and  abandon  his  fatal 
experiment.  No  one,  sir,  can  perform  that  duty  with  more  pro- 
priety than  yourself.  You  can,  if  you  will,  induce  him  to  change 
his  course.  To  you,  then,  sir,  in  no  unfriendly  spirit,  but  with  feel- 
ings softened  and  subdued  by  the  deep  distress  which  pervades  every 
class  of  our  countrymen,  I  make  the  appeal.  By  your  official  and 
personal  relations  with  the  president,  you  maintain  with  him  an 
intercourse  which  I  neither  enjoy  nor  covet.  Go  to  him  and  tell 
him,  without  exaggeration,  but  in  the  language  of  truth  and  sin- 
cerity, the  actual  condition  of  his  bleeding  country.  Tell  him  it 
is  nearly  ruined  and  undone,  by  the  measures  which  he  has  been 
induced  to  put  in  operation.  Tell  him  that  his  experiment  is 
operating  on  the  nation  like  the  philosopher's  experiment  upon  a 
convulsed  animal,  in  an  exhausted  receiver,  and  that  it  must  expire 
in  agony,  if  he  does  not  pause,  give  it  free  and  sound  circulation, 
and  suffer  the  energies  of  the  people  to  be  revived  and  restored. 
Tell  him  that,  in  a  single  city,  more  than  sixty  bankruptcies,  in- 
volving a  loss  of  upward  of  fifteen  millions  of  dollars,  have  oc- 
curred.     Tell  him  of  the  alarming  decline  in  the  value  of  all  prop- 


120  REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES. 

erty,  of  the  depreciation  of  all  the  products  of  industry,  of  the 
stagnation  in  every  branch  of  business,  and  of  the  close  of  numer- 
ous manufacturing  establishments,  which,  a  few  short  montlis  ago, 
were  in  active  and  flourishing  operation.  Depict  to  him,  if  you 
can  find  language  to  portray,  the  heart-rending  wretchedness  of 
thousands  of  the  working-classes  cast  out  of  employment.  Tell 
him  of  the  tears  of  helpless  widows,  no  longer  able  to  earn  their 
bread ;  and  of  unclad  and  unfed  orphans,  who  have  been  driven, 
by  his  policy,  out  of  the  busy  pursuits  in  which  but  yesterday  they 
were  gaining  an  honest  livelihood." 

On  the  14th  of  the  same  month  (March),  Mr.  Clay  rose  to  ad- 
dress the  senate  on  other  petitions  and  memorials  and  said  : — 

"  Mr.  President,  it  is  a  question  of  the  highest  importance,  what 
is  to  be  the  issue,  what  the  remedy,  of  the  existing  evils.  We 
should  deal  with  the  people  openly,  frankly,  sincerely.  The  sen- 
ate stands  ready  to  do  whatever  is  incumbent  upon  it ;  but  unless 
the  majority  in  the  house  will  relent,  unless  it  will  take  heed  of  and 
profit  by  recent  events,  there  is  no  hope  for  the  nation  from  the 
joint  action  of  the  two  houses  of  Congress  at  this  session.  Still,  J 
would  say  to  my  countrymen,  do  not  despair.  You  are  a  young, 
brave,  intelligent,  and,  as  yet,  a  free  people.  A  complete  remedy 
for  all  that  you  suffer,  and  all  that  you  dread,  is  in  your  own  hands. 
And  the  events,  to  which  I  have  just  alluded,  demonstrate  that 
those  of  us  have  not  been  deceived,  who  have  always  relied  upon 
the  virtue,  the  capacity,  and  the  intelligence  of  the  people.     *     * 

"  The  senate  stands  in  the  breach,  ready  to  defend  the  consti- 
tution, and  to  relieve  the  distresses  of  the  people.  But,  without 
the  concurrence  of  another  branch  of  Congress,  which  ought  to  be 
the  first  to  yield  it,  the  senate  alone  can  send  forth  no  act  of  legis- 
lation. Unaided,  it  can  do  no  positive  good  ;  but  it  has  vast  pre- 
ventive power.  It  may  avert  and  arrest  evil,  if  it  can  not  rebuke 
usurpation.  Senators,  let  us  remain  steadily  by  the  constitution 
and  the  country,  in  this  most  portentous  crisis.  Let  us  oppose,  to 
all  encroachments,  and  to  all  corruption,  a  manly,  resolute,  and 
uncompromising  resistance.  **#*** 

"  Senators!  we  hold  a  highly  responsible  and  arduous  position; 
but  the  people  are  with  us,  and  the  path  of  duty  lies  clearly  marked 
belore  us.  Let  us  be  firm,  persevering,  and  unmoved.  Let  us 
perform  our  duty  in  a  manner  worthy  of  our  ancestors,  worthy  of 
American  senators,  worthy  of  the  dignity  of  the  sovereign  states 
that  we  represent — above  all,  worthy  of  the  name  of  American 
freemen  !  Let  us  '  pledge  our  lives,  our  fortunes,  and  our  sacred 
honor,'  to  rescue  our  beloved  country  from  all  impending  dangers. 
And,  amid  the  general  gloom  and  darkness  which  prevail,  let  us 
continue  to  present  one  unextinguished  light,  steadily  buining,  in 
the  cause  of  the  people,  of  the  constitution,  and  of  civil  liberty." 


REMOVAL    OF    THE    DEPOSITES.  121 

In  one  of  the  debates,  about  the  20th  of  May,  Mr.  Clay  took 
occasion  again  to  call  the  attention  of  the  senate  to  the  extraordi- 
nary fact,  that,  although  the  senate  had  been  nearly  six  months  in 
session,  no  nomination  iiad  been  made  for  a  secretary  of  the  treas- 
ury ;  and  Mr.  Webster,  at  the  same  time,  to  show  the  feeling  of 
General  Washington  on  this  subject,  and  his  conscientious  respect 
for  the  co-ordinate  power  of  the  senate  in  the  matter  of  appoint- 
ments, read  the  following  document : — 

"  Message  from  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  the  Senate  of 

the  United  States. 

"  United  States,  FebruarijV,  1790. 
"  Gentlemen  of  the  Senate: 

"  Among  the  persons  appointed,  during  the  last  session,  to  offi- 
ces under  the  national  government,  there  were  some  who  declined 
serving.  Their  names  and  offices  are  specified  in  the  first  column 
of  the  foregoing  list.  I  supplied  these  vacancies,  agreeably  to  the 
constitution,  by  temporary  appointments,  which  you  will  find  men- 
tioned in  the  second  column  of  the  list.  These  appointments  will 
expire  with  your  present  session,  and  indeed  ought  not  to  en- 
dure  LONGER  THAN  UNTIL  OTHERS  CAN  BE  REGULARLY  MADE. 

For  that  purpose,  I  now  nominate  to  you  the  persons  named  in 
the  third  column  of  the  list,  as  being  in  my  opinion  qualified  to  fill 
the  offices  opposite  to  their  names  in  the  first. 

"  G.  Washington." 

On  Monday,  June  23,  Mr.  Taney's  nomination  was  at  last  sent 
in,  and  on  Tuesday,  the  24th — the  next  day — he  was  rejected  by 
a  vote  of  28  to  18.  So,  it  appears,  these  important,  momentous 
transactions  were  all  done  by  an  itnavthorized  agent,  or  by  taking 
advantao-e  of  a  mere  formal  license  of  the  law.  It  could  not  be 
said,  that  the  forms  of  law  had  been  violated,  though  the  intention 
of  it  evidently  was. 

In  reward  for  this  fidelity,  Mr.  Taney  was  subsequently  made 
Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States!  I 


122  THE    EXPUNGING    RESOLUTION. 


•  CHAPTER  V. 

THE    EXPUNGING    RESOLUTION. 

The  Secret  of  General  Jackson's  Power. — Its  Culminating  Point. — Armed  Inter- 
pretation of  Law. — Silencing  Remonstrance. — A  Case  of  Political  Casuistry. — 
General  Jackson's  Protest  against  the  Resolution  of  the  Senate. — Mr.  Calhoun's 
Views  of  It. — Revival  of  the  Names  of  Whig  and  Tory. — Why  both  were  not 
kept  up. — The  Yeas  and  Nays  on  the  Expunging  Resolution. — Remarks  of  Mr. 
Clay. — Protest  of  the  Massachusetts  Senators. — The  Resolution. — Act  of  Ex- 
punging.— A  Scene  in  the  Senate. 

The  secret  of  General  Jackson's  influence,  which  raised  him 
to  power  so  triumphantly,  and  sustained  him  throughout  his  admin- 
istration of  eiglit  years,  with  unexampled  popularity,  at  the  same 
time  that  he  was  destroying  the  greatest  and  best  interests  of  the 
country,  on  the  largest  scale,  it  is  believed,  is  not  generally  under- 
.stood.  It  has,  for  the  most  part,  been  ascribed  to  the  eclat  of  mil- 
itary fame.  That  there  was  capital  in  this,  can  not  be  denied.  It 
has  also  been  partly  attributed  to  the  force  of  his  character.  There 
is  reason  also  in  this.  But,  neither  his  military  fame,  nor  the  force 
of  his  character,  could  account  for  his  political  career.  Though 
the  country  was  grateful  for  his  distinguished  services  in  fighting 
lier  battles,  it  will  be  observed,  tliat  nearly  ten  years  had  rolled 
round  after  the  great  victory  over  the  British  army,  on  the  Sth  of 
.January,  1815,  before  he  obtained  any  decided  position  as  a  can- 
didate for  political  eminence.  As  th'j  effect  of  military  fame,  he 
should  have  gained  ground  much  faster  than  this,  though  that,  un- 
doubtedly, aided  him  very  essentially.  It  was  felt  not  inconsidera- 
bly in  the  presidential  campaign  of  1824  ;  but,  nevertheless,  there 
was  manifested  on  that  occasion,  but  a  small  part  of  the  popular 
enthusiasm  which  burst  forth  in  his  favor  in  the  campaign  of  J825, 
and  which  had  not  died  away  in  that  of  1832.  To  understand  how 
he  obtained  such  a  strong  hold  on  the  people,  as  to  be  able  for  u:iany 
years,  as  president,  to  do  as  he  pleased,  and  make  the  people  be- 
lieve he  was  seeking  their  good,  when  he  was  doing  them  the 
greatest  possible  injury — as  to  make  them  satisfied  with  measures 
and  acts,  which,  but  for  their  idolatrous  regard,  would  have  shocked 


THE    EXPUNGING    RESOLUTION.  123 

them,  and  driven  them  for  ever  from  their  support  of  him — as  .'itill 
to  maintain  his  popularity,  when  he  was  revolutionizing  the  govern- 
ment and  its  institutions,  disturbing  and  deranging  the  commercial 
habits  of  the  nation,  and  bringing  upon  the  people  calamity  and 
distress  like  a  whirlwind — to  solve  this  problem,  requires  to  look 
somewhere  else,  than  to  the  causes  to  which  they  have  usually  been 
ascribed,  not,  however,  to  abate  from  them  a  reasonable  share  of 
influence.  But,  manifestly,  they  are  not  sufficient  to  account  for 
all  this. 

Was  it  in  the  man,  or  in  the  people  ?  Did  it  rise  from  virtue, 
or  from  vice  ?  So  far  as  the  masses  of  the  people  were' concerned, 
it  had  its  origin  in  virtue,  and  virtue  of  the  most  generous  kind. 
They  believed  that  General  Jackson  was  deprived  of  his  rights  in 
the  election  of  Mr.  Adams  in  1825.  In  such  a  case,  the  people 
of  all  nations,  more  especially  of  the  United  States,  are  disposed 
to  do  justice.  The  power  of  such  a  sentiment  over  masses,  when 
once  it  begins  to  operate,  is  vast,  amazing,  irresistible  ;  and  it  in- 
creases by  use  and  exercise,  beyond  any  powers  of  calculation. 
The  people  believed,  that  General  Jackson  was  ivronged ;  they 
continued  to  believe  it ;  they  have  never  ceased  to  believe  it. 
They  resolved  that  that  wrong  should  be  redressed  ;  and  having 
so  resolved,  all  that  they  aimed  at,  must  be  accomplished,  and  was 
accomplished.  It  is  impossible  to  set  bounds  to  such  a  sentiment, 
pervading  the  masses  of  mankind.  In  its  volume,  it  is  like  a  mighty 
river ;  in  its  depth,  like  the  sea  ;  in  its  power,  like  the  mountain 
waves  of  the  ocean. 

It  is  believed,  that  this  is  the  chief  cause  of  the  enthusiasm  which 
has  been  manifested  by  the  people  of  (he  United  States,  in  favor 
of  Andrew  Jackson — and  the  cause  which  sustained  him  so  long, 
and  so  effectively.  If  so,  it  will  be  seen,  that,  so  far  as  the  people 
were  concerned,  it  had  its  foundation  in  the  most  commendable 
feelings — feelings  which  do  honor  to  human  nature,  and  when  ex- 
cited by  a  worthy  cause,  and  bestowed  on  a  worthy  object,  their 
results  can  not  but  be  beneficent. 

It  can  not  but  be  seen,  by  this  time,  that  General  Jackson,  by 
mistake  or  otherwise,  was  the  unfortunate  instrument  of  making 
terrible  havoc  on  the  great  interests  of  the  country.  How  he  should 
have  been  sustained  in  such  a  career,  even  in  the  midst  of  such 
convincing  evidences,  that  he  was  introducing  and  establishing  a 
most  ruinous  and  destructive  policy,  is  seen  in  the  cause  already 
pointed  out,  which  so  absorbs  and  sways  the  masses  of  mankind, 


124  THE    EXPUNGING    RESOLUTION. 

when  once  It  has  taken  hold  of  them.  It  is  a  sentiment  of  faith  : 
"  Though  he  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  in  him."  Toward  the 
Divine  Being,  such  a  sentiment  can  never  be  misapplied  ;  but, 
toward  man,  alas  !  it  may  be.  In  the  case  of  General  .Jackson 
and  the  people  of  the  United  States,  it  was  sadly  misapplied.  He 
did  slay  them  with  a  vengeance,  when  they  trusted  in  him  with 
tlie  most  implicit  faith,  and  from  the  most  generous  feelings  of  liu- 
man  nature. 

It  has  been  shown,  in  the  first  volume  of  this  work,  which  of  the 
two  parties  was  wronged  in  1825,  and  onward — General  .Jackson, 
or  Mr.  Clay. 

The  present  chapter  brings  the  political  history  of  the  country 
to  the  culmination  of  General  Jackson's  power  and  influence — to 
a  point  where  it  was  absolute  and  uncontrolled.     Some  have  sup- 
posed that  the  removal  of  the  deposites  was  the  boldest  and  strong- 
est measure,  as  compared  with  his  other  acts  of  usurpation.     The 
reason  of  this  feeling  doubtless  arises  from  the  immediate  and  in- 
trinsic  importance  of  the   act.     The  democratic  branch   of   the 
o-overnment  had  no  power  left  when  the  purse  was  gone.     The 
balance-power  was  annihilated  at  one  blow\     Therefore  it  has  been 
thought  that  this  was  the  most  high-handed  measure  of  all,  as  it 
gave  the  president  what  Mr.  Calhoun  at  the  time  called  the  "  armed 
interpretation"  of  the  law.    It  will  be  recollected,  that  General  Jack- 
son claimed  the  right,  as  president,  to  execute  the  constitution  and 
laws  "  as  he  understood  them  ;"  and  understanding  them  as  he 
pleased,  he  was  of  course,  by  his  own  rule,  entitled  to  do  as  he 
pleased.     Having,  therefore,  the  sword  and  the  purse  in  his  hand, 
the  latter  because  he  was  pleased  to  take  it,  he  was  sustained  by 
"  armed  interpretation."     Nevertheless,  the  proposal  to  expunge 
the  resolution  of  the  senate,  which  disapproved  of  this  violence  to 
the  constitution  and  laws,  was  doubtless  a  bolder  act,  than  seizing 
the  purse  of  the  nation,  because,  after  having  done  the  deed,  it  was 
saying,  "  You   shall  not  complain  !"     It  was,  in  eftect,  silencing 
the  democratic  branch  of  the  government !     Of  course,  arbitrary 
power  has  no  remaining  obstacle  in  its  path,  after  it  has  succeeded 
in  silencing  all  remonstrance. 

How  General  Jackson  could  so  much  have  abused  the  confi- 
dence of  a  generous  people,  which  had  been  reposed  in  him  merely 
because  they  believed  he  had  been  wronged — defrauded  of  the 
presidency  in  1  S25 — as  to  be  tempted  to  these  outrages — is  a  ques- 
tion of  casuistry  which  can   not  here  be  taken  into  consideration. 


THE    EXPUNGING    RESOLUTION.  125 

It  is  sufficient  that  he  did  so  yield  to  the  seductive  claims  of  ambi- 
tion, or  of  some  other  propensity,  as  to  invade,  and  in  a  great 
measure  demolish  the  democratic  power  of  the  constitution. 

Soon  after  the  resolution  of  the  senate  oh  the  removal  of  the 
deposites,  considered  in  the  third  chapter,  had  passed,  the  presi- 
dent sent  in  his  protest,  and  claimed  that  it  should  be  entered  on 
the  senate  journal.  It  was  couched  in  an  imperious  tone,  and  not 
less  didactic  than  Mr.  Taney's  lecture,  surnamed  his  report,  to 
both  houses  of  Congress.  As  the  senate  supposed  they  under- 
stood their  own  duties,  and  that  they  belonged  to  an  independent 
branch  of  the  government,  they  did  not  see  fit  to  comply  with  this 
demand,  and  left  the  president's  protest  in  his  own  hands. 

As  the  Hon.  John  C.  Calhoun  is  allowed  to  be  a  highly-gifted 
man,  and  has  been  somewhat  prominent  in  the  political  world — 
though  not  always  on  the  same  side  of  the  questions  which  have 
most  agitated  the  country — it  may  be  interesting — certainly  it  is 
instructive — to  record  here  a  few  brief  extracts  from  a  speech  he 
delivered.  May  5,  1834,  on  the  motion  for  the  disposal  of  the 
president's  protest.     Among  other  things,  Mr.  Calhoun  said  : — 

"  The  secretary  was  but  the  agent  of  the  president  in  the  trans- 
action [removal  of  the  deposites].  He  had  been  placed  in  the 
situation  he  occupied  expressly  with  a  view  of  executing  the  orders 
of  the  president,  who  had  openly  declared  that  he  assumed  the  re- 
sponsibility. To  omit,  under  these  circumstances,  an  expression 
of  the  opinion  of  the  senate,  in  relation  to  this  transaction,  viewed 
as  the  act.  of  the  president,  would  have  been,  on  the  part  of  the  sen- 
ate, a  manifest  dereliction  of  duty.  *  *  *  'Phe  question  is  not 
whether  we  had  a  right  to  pass  the  resolution.  No.  It  is  one  of 
a  very  different  character,  and  of  much  greater  magnitude.  It  is 
whether  the  president  had  a  right  to  question  our  decision." 

Mr.  Calhoun  adduced,  with  great  propriety  and  force,  the  follow- 
ing clause  of  the  constitution,  as  determining  the  principle  as  to 
what  transactions  of  Congress  the  president  had  any  right  to  do 
with  officially  : — 

"  Every  order,  resolution,  or  vote,  to  which  the  concurrence 
of  the  senate  and  house  of  representatives  may  be  necessary  (except 
on  a  question  of  adjournment),  shall  be  presented  to  the  president 
of  the  United  States ;  and  before  the  same  shall  take  effect,  shall 
be  approved  by  him,  or,  being  disapproved  by  him,  shall  be  repassed 
by  two  thirds  of  the  senate  and  house  of  representatives,  according 
to  the  rules  and  limitations  prescribed  in  the  case  of  a  bill." 

Mr.  Calhoun  then  said  :  "Here  a  very  important  question  pre- 
sents itself,  which,  when  properly  considered,  throws  a  flood  of 


126  THE    EXPUNGING    RESOLUTION. 

light  on  the  question  under  consideration.  Why  has  the  constitu- 
tion limited  the  veto  power  to  '  bills,  and  to  the  orders,  votes,  and 
resolutions,'  requiring  the  concurrence  of  both  houses  ?  Why  not 
also  extend  it  to  their  seimrate  votes,  orders,  or  resolutions  ?  But 
one  answer  can  be  given.  The  object  is  to  j)ro1ect  the  independence 
of  the  two  houses — to  prevent  the  executive  from  interfering  with 
their  proceedings,  and  from  having  any  control  over  them,  as  is 
attempted  in  the  protest — on  the  great  principle  which  lies  at  the 
foundation  of  liberty,  and  without  which  it  can  not  be  preserved, 
that  deliberative  bodies  should  be  left  without  extraneous  control 
or  influence,  free  to  express  their  opinions,  and  to  conduct  their 
proceedings  according  to  their  own  sense  of  propriety.  And  we 
find,  accordingly,  that  the  constitution  has  not  only  limited  the  veto 
to  cases  requiring  the  concurrent  votes  of  the  two  houses,  but  has 
expressly  vested  each  house  with  the  power  of  establishing  its  own 
rules  of  proceeding,  according  to  its  will  or  pleasure,  without  limi- 
tation or  check. 

"  Within  these  walls,  the  senate  is  the  sole  and  absolute  judge 
of  its  own  powers;  and  in  the  mode  of  conducting  our  business, 
and  in  determining  how  and  when  our  opinions  ought  to  be  ex- 
pressed, there  is  no  other  standard  of  right  or  wrong,  to  which  an 
appeal  can  be  made,  but  the  constitution  and  the  rules  of  proceed- 
ing, established  under  the  authority  of  the  senate  itself.  And  so 
solicitous  is  the  constitution  to  secure  to  each  house  a  full  control 
over  its  own  proceedings,  and  the  freest  and  fullest  expression  of 
opinion  on  all  sicbjects,  that  even  the  majesty  of  the  laws  is  relaxed, 
to  secure  a  'perfect  freedom  of  debate.       ****** 

"  But  the  part  of  this  paper  [the  protest]  which  is  most  charac- 
teristic— that  which  lets  us  into  the  real  nature  and  character  of 
this  movement — is  the  source  from  which  the  president  derives  the 
right  to  interfere  with  our  proceedings.  He  does  not  even  pretend 
to  derive  it  from  any  power  vested  in  him  by  the  constitution,  ex- 
press or  implied.  He  knew  that  such  an  attempt  would  be  utterly 
hopeless ;  and  accordingly,  instead  of  a  question  of  right,  he  makes 
it  a  question  of  duty,  and  thus  inverts  the  order  rf  things — referring 
his  rights  to  his  duties,  iyistead  of  his  duties  to  his  rights,  and  for- 
getting that  rights  always  precede  duties,  and  are,  in  fact,  but  the 
obligations  which  they  impose,  and  of  course  that  they  do  not  con- 
fer power,  but  impose  obedience — obedience,  in  this  case,  to  the 
constitution  and  laws,  in  the  discharge  of  his  official  duties.  The 
opposite  view — that  on  which  he  acts,  and  which  would  give  to 
the  president  the  right  to  assume  whatever  duty  he  might  choose, 
and  to  convert  such  duties  into  powers — would,  if  admitted,  render 
him  as  absolute  as  the  autocrat  of  all  the  Russias.  Taking  this 
erroneous  view  of  his  powers,  he  could  be  at  little  loss  to  justify 
his  conduct.  To  justify,  did  I  say?  He  takes  higher — far  higher 
ground  :  He  makes  his  interference  a  matter  of  obligation — of  sol- 


THE    EXPUNGING    RESOLUTION.  127 

« 

emn  obligation — imperious  necessity — the  tyrant's  plea.  Ho 
tells  us  that  it  was  due  to  his  station,  to  public  opinion,  to  proper 
self-respect,  to  the  obligation  imposed  by  his  constitutional  oath — 
his  duty  to  see  the  laws  faithfully  executed — his  responsibility  as 
the  head  of  the  executive  department — and  to  his  obhgation  to  the 
American  people,  as  thr.ir  immediate  representative — to  interpose 
his  a/uthority  against  the  usurpations  of  the  senate.  Infatuated 
man  !  blinded  by  ambition,  intoxicated  by  flattery  and  vanity  ! 
Who,  that  is  the  least  acquainted  with  the  human  heart — who,  that 
is  conversant  with  the  page  of  history,  does  not  see,  under  all  this, 
the  workings  of  a  dark,  lawless,  and  insatiable  ambition,  which,  if 
not  arrested,  will  finally  impel  him  to  his  own,  or  his  country's 
ruin  ?  It  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  this  protest  is 
the  termination  of  his  hostility  against  the  senate.  It  is  but  the 
commencement — it  is  the  proclamation  in  which  he  makes  known 
his  will  to  the  senate,  claims  their  obedience,  and  admonishes  them 
of  their  danger,  should  they  refuse  to  repeal  their  ordinance — no, 
it  is  not  an  ordinance — it  is  a  resolution.  *  *  *  fje  claims  to 
be,  not  only  the  representative,  but  the  immediate  representative  of 
the  American  people  !  What  effrontery  !  What  boldness  of  as- 
sertion !  The  immediate  representative  !  Why,  he  never  received 
a  vote  from  the  American  people.  He  was  elected  by  electors — 
[the  colleges]. 

"  But  why  this  solicitude,  on  the  part  of  the  president,  to  place 
himself  near  to  the  people,  and  to  push  us  off  at  the  greatest  dis- 
tance ?  Why  this  solicitude  to  make  himself  their  sole  representa- 
tive, their  only  guardian  and  protector,  their  only  friend  and  sup- 
porter ?  The  object  can  not  be  mistaken  :  It  is  preparatory  to 
further  hostilities — to  a?}  appeal  to  the  people  !  *  *  *  Let  us 
bring  under  a  single  glance  the  facts  of  the  case.  He  fii'st  seized 
upon  the  public  money — took  it  from  the  custody  of  the  law,  and 
placed  it  in  his  own  possession,  as  much  so,  as  if  placed  in  his 
own  pocket.  The  senate  disapproves  of  the  act,  and  opposes  the 
only  obstacle  that  prevents  him  from  becoming  completely  master 
of  the  public  treasury.  To  crush  the  resistance  which  they  inter- 
pose to  his  will,  he  seeks  to  quarrel  with  them ;  and  with  that  view, 
seizes  on  the  resolution  in  question  as  the  pretext.  He  sends  us  a 
protest  against  it,  in  which  he  resorts  to  every  art  to  enlist  the  feel- 
ings of  the  people  on  his  side,  preparatory  to  a  direct  appeal  to 
them,  with  a  view  to  engage  them  as  allies  in  the  war  which  he  in- 
tends to  carry  on  against  the  senate,  till  they  submit  to  his  author- 
ity. He  has  proclaimed  in  advance,  that  the  right  to  interfere,  in- 
volves the  right  to  make  that  interference  effectual.  To  make  it 
so,  force  only  is  wanting.  Give  him  an  adequate  force,  and  a 
speedy  termination  would  be  put  to  the  controversy. 

"  Since,  then,  hostilities  are  intended,  it  is  time  that  we  should 
deliberate  how  we  ought  to  act — how  the  assault  upon  our  consti- 


123  THE    EXPUNGING    RESOLUTION. 

tutional  rights  and  privileges  ought  to  be  met.  If  we  consult  what 
id  due  to  the  wisdom  and  dignity  of  the  senate,  there  is  but  one 
mode  :  meet  it  on  the  threshold.  Encroachments  are  most 
easily  resisted  at  the  commencement.  It  is  at  the  extreme  point 
— on  the  frontier — that,  in  a  contest  of  this  description,  the  assail- 
ant is  the  weakest,  and  the  assailed  the  strongest.  Permit  the 
frontier  of  our  rights  to  be  passed,  and  let  the  question  be,  not  re- 
sistance to  usurpation,  but  at  icluit  point  we  shall  resist,  and  the 
conquest  [over  us]  will  be  more  than  half  achieved.       *      *      * 

"  Nor  is  the  attempt  to  limit  our  legislative  functions  by  our  ju- 
dicial, in  reference  to  the  resolution,  less  extraordinary.  I  had  sup- 
po- ed  that  our  judicial  were  in  addition  to  our  legislative  functions, 
and  not  in  dimlnutiun,  and  that  we  possess,  to  the  full  extent,  with- 
out limitation  or  subtraction,  all  the  legislative  powers  possessed  by 
the  house  of  representatives,  with  a  single  exception  as  provided  by 
the  constitution  [the  origination  of  revenue  bills]. 

"  But  let  us  reflect  a  moment  to  what  extent  we  must  be  carried, 
if  we  once  admit  the  principle.  If  the  senate  has  no  right,  in  con- 
sequence of  tlieir  judicial  functions,  to  express  an  opinion  by  vote 
or  resolution,  in  reference  to  the  legality  or  illegality  of  the  acts  of 
public  functionaries,  they  have  no  right  to  express  such  opinion 
individually  in  debate — as  the  objection  [the  principle?],  if  it  exists 
at  all,  goes  to  the  expression  of  an  opinion  by  individuals,  as  well 
as  by  the  body.  He  who  has  made  up  an  opinion,  and  avowed  it 
in  debate,  would  be  as  much  disqualified  to  perform  his  judicial 
functions  as  a  judge,  on  a  trial  of  impeachment,  as  if  he  had  ex- 
pressed it  by  vote  ;  and  of  course,  whatever  restrictions  the  judicial 
functions  of  the  senate  may  be  supposed  to  impose,  would  be  re- 
strictions on  the  liberty  of  discussion,  as  well  as  that  of  voting  ;  and 
consequently,  destroy  the  freedom  of  debate  secured  to  us  by  the 
constitution.  *  *  *  ***** 

"  I  am  mortified,  that  in  this  country,  boasting  of  its  Anglo- 
Saxon  descent,  that  any  one  of  respectable  standing — much  less 
the  president  of  the  United  States — should  be  found  entertaining 
principles  leading  to  such  monstrous  results  ;  and  I  can  scarcely 
believe  myself  to  be  breathing  the  air  of  our  country,  and  to  be 
within  the  walls  of  the  senate-chamber,  when  I  hear  such  doctrines 
vindicated.  It  is  proof  of  the  wonderful  degeneracy  of  the  times 
— of  the  total  loss  of  the  true  conception  of  constitutional  liberty." 

It  should  be  observed,  that  the  unconstitutional  assumptions,  by 
General  Jackson,  of  regal  prerogative — prerogative  the  most  abso- 
lute— gave  rise  to  the  revival  of  the  party  names  of  whig  and 
TORY,  as  they  were  used  in  England,  when  liberty  in  that  country 
was  doomed  to  struggle  against  royal  prerogative.  Hume  says  : 
"  This  year  [1G79]  is  remarkable  for  being  the  epoch  of  the  well- 
known   epithets  of  whig   and  lory.''''     It  was  in  allusion  to  this 


THE    EXPUNGING    RESOLUTION.  129 

new  designation  of  parties  in  the  United  States,  or  rather  to  the 
revival  of  old  names,  that  Mr.  Calhoun  said  : — 

"  But,  in  the  midst  of  this  degeneracy,  I  perceive  the  symptoms 
of  regeneration.  It  is  not  my  wish  to  touch  on  the  party  designa- 
tions that  have  recently  obtained.  I  can  not,  however,  but  remark, 
that  the  revival  of  the  party  names  of  the  revolution,  after  they  had 
so  long  slumbered,  is  not  without  a  meaning — not  without  an  indi- 
cation of  a  relation  to  those  principles  which  lie  at  the  foundation 
of  liberty.  Gentlemen  ought  to  reflect,  that  the  extensive  and  sud- 
den revival  of  these  names  could  not  be  without  some  adequate 
cause.  Names  are  not  to  be  taken  or  given  at  pleasure.  There 
must  be  someih'wg  to  cause  their  application  to  adhere.  If  I  re- 
member rightly,  it  was  Augustus,  who,  in  all  the  plenitude  of  his 
power,  said,  that  he  found  it  impossible  to  introduce  a  new  word. 
What,  then,  is  that  something  ?  What  is  there  in  the  meaning 
of  WHIG  and  tory,  and  what  in  the  character  of  the  times,  which 
has  caused  their  sudden  revival  as  party  designations  ?  I  take  it, 
that  the  very  essence  of  toryism — that  which  constitutes  a  tory — 
is  to  sustain  prerogative  against  j^rivilcge — to  support  the  executive 
ao-ainst  the  legislative  department  of  the  government,  and  to  lean 
to  the  side  of  power,  against  the  side  of  liberty — while  the  whig 
is,  in  all  these  particulars,  of  the  very  opposite  principles.  These 
are  the  leading  characteristics  of  the  respective  parties,  whig  and 
TORY,  and  run  through  their  application  in  all  the  variety  of  cir- 
cumstances in  which  they  have  been  applied,  either  in  this  country, 
or  in  Great  Britain.  Their  sudden  revival  and  application  at  this 
time,  ought  to  admonish  my  old  friends,  who  are  now  on  the  side 
of  the  administration,  that  there  is  something  in  the  times — some- 
t/iing  in  the  existing  struggle  between  the  parties,  and  in  the  prin- 
ciples and  doctrines  advocated  by  those  in  power,  which  has  caused 
this  new  and  extensive  application  of  these  terms.  I  must  say  to 
those  who  are  interested,  that  nothing  but  their  reversing  their 
course,  can  possibly  prevent  their  application.  They  owe  it  to 
themselves — they  owe  it  to  the  chief  magistrate  whom  they  support 
(who  at  least  is  venerable  for  his  years)  as  the  head  of  the  party 
— that  they  should  halt  in  the  advocacy  of  the  despotic  and  slavish 
doctrines  which  we  hear  daily  advanced,  before  a  return  of  the  re- 
viving spirit  of  liberty  shall  overwhelm  them,  and  those  who  are 
leadins:  them  to  their  ruin.  #  #  *  j  am  content  with  tha 
[name — whig]  which  designates  those  with  whom  I  act.  It  is, 
at  least,  an  honest  and  a  patriotic  name.  It  is  synonymous  with 
resistance  to  usurpation — usurpation,  come  from  what  quarter,  and 
under  what  shape,  it  may." 

These,  certainly,  are  remarkable  sentiments,  as  coming  from  a 
man,  who,  not  long  afterward,  gave  in  his  adhesion  to  these  high 
Vol.  II.— 9 


130  THE    EXPUNGINQ    RESOLUTION. 

claims  of  regal  prerogative  against  liberty !  As  1679  was  the  epoch 
when  the  party  d-?5!gnations  of  whig  and  tory  rose  in  England,  the 
former  having  been  applied  to  the  advocates  of  popular  rights 
against  royal  prerogative,  and  the  latter  to  those  who  supported  the 
absolute  power  of  the  crown,  so  1834  was  the  epoch  in  American 
history,  when  these  same  party  designations,  which  have  prevailed 
uninterruptedly  in  England  from  1679  down  to  this  time,  and  which 
prevailed  in  the  American  colonies  during  the  revolutionary  war, 
were  revived,  in  the  manner  specified  by  Mr.  Calhoun,  to  com- 
memorate the  regal  pretensions  of  General  Jackson — the  one  ap- 
plied to  the  party  that  opposed,  and  the  other  to  the  party  that 
supported  them  ;  and  precisely  the  same  reasons  for  the  use  of 
these  terms,  in  such  an  application,  existed  in  the  United  States  in 
1834,  as  existed  in  England  in  1679.  Mr.  Calhoun  hfts  shown 
philosophically,  that  the  revival  of  the  names,  proves  the  existence 
of  the  cause. 

The  whigs  of  the  United  States,  however,  must  confess  to  one 
of  two  things,  either  that  the  cause  of  this,  or  their  own  virtue,  has 
abated.  !IMr.  Calhoun  has  demonstrated,  that  they  had  good  cause 
for  the  resuscitation  of  the  name  of  whig,  and  for  the  use  of  its 
only  opposite — tory.  Why  have  they  retained  the  former,  and 
dropped  the  latter,  when  there  is  no  use  in  the  one  without  the 
other  ?  Will  they  acknowledge,  that  the  cause  no  longer  exists  ? 
If  so,  they  ought  to  lay  aside  their  own  name,  as  no  longer  appro- 
priate. Without  the  name  of  tory,  it  means  nothing,  and  is 
nothing. 

The  truth  is,  the  whigs  have  yielded  to  the  laws  of  courtesy, 
without  realizing  an  equivalent — with  infinite  loss.  They  have 
allowed,  and  to  a  great  extent,  awarded  the  name  of  democrats  to 
their  opponents,  which  is  the  favorite  name  of  the  American  peo- 
ple, and  have  thus  contributed  to  their  own  perpetual  disadvantage 
and  defeat.  If  they  had  maintained  the  ground  they  occupied  on 
the  revival  of  the  names  of  whig  and  tory,  and  conscientiously  ad- 
hered to  these  party  appellations,  which  designated  principles — for 
they  were  true  and  fair  designations — they  would  have  soon  gained 
the  ascendency,  and  maintained  it,  so  long  as  they  proved  them- 
selves worthy  of  the  name  of  whig.  But  they  preferred  politeness 
in  a  time  of  rude  strife,  when  their  opponents  were  not  disposed 
to  be  equally  courteous.  The  names  were  applicable  on  both 
sides,  and  there  was  what  Mr.  Calhoun  calls  a  "  something  to 
ca  jse  their  application  to  adhere.''''     Precisely  the  same  antagonist 


THE    EXPUNGING   RESOLUTION.  IS  J 

principles  have  been  in  the  field  ever  since  ;  but  the  occasion  that 
brought  up  the  names,  has  passed  over.  The  reward  which  the 
whigs  have  received  for  this  forbearance  and  generosity,  is  to  be 
themselves  called  tories  by  their  opponents  !  When  will  the  whigs 
learn  wisdom  ?  They  seem  not  to  have  considered,  that  names, 
in  this  country,  decide  everything;  that  it  is  vain  to  contend  against 
them  ;  that  their  opponents  are  more  sagacious  ;  and  that  every 
time  they  apply  the  word  democrats  to  the  party  opposed  to  them, 
they  lose  more  than  they  gain  by  the  best  argument  they  can 
make. 

That  the  terms  whig  and  tory  were  applicable  (and  never  more 
so  in  England  or  America)  at  the  culminating  point  of  General 
Jackson's  power  and  influence,  few  will  have  the  hardihood  to 
deny.  His  will  was  absolute.  Having  been  met  by  a  resolute 
expression  of  the  feelings  of  the  senate  on  the  removal  of  the  de- 
posites,  he  set  himself  to  the  task  of  humbling  that  body  at  his 
feet,  and  he  succeeded  ! 

In  February,  1835,  ^Ir.  Benton,  of  Missouri,  brought  forward 
a  resolution  in  the  senate,  to  expunge  that  of  the  28th  of  March, 
1834,  disapproving  of  the  removal  of  the  deposites,  which  failed 
on  this  occasion  by  a  vote  of  39  to  7.  He  continued,  however, 
to  agitate  the  subject,  and  at  the  second  session  of  the  next  Con- 
gress, 1836—7,  when  the  proportion  of  senators  in  favor  of  Gen. 
Jackson  had  been  largely  increased,  he  again  offered  his  expun- 
ging resiolution,  which  was  finally  carried,  January  16,  1837,  by  a 
vote  of  24  to  19. 

Yeas — Messrs.  Benton,  Brown,  Buchanan,  Dana,  Ewing 
(of  Illinois),  Fulton,  Grundy,  Hubbard,  King  (of  Alabama), 
Linn,  Morris,  Nicholas,  Niles,  Page,  Rives,  Robinson, 
RuGGLES,  Sevier,  Strange,  Tallmadge,  Tipton,  Walker, 
Wall,  and  Wright. 

Nays — Messrs.  Bayard,  Black,  Calhoun,  Clay,  Critten- 
den, Davis,  Ewing  (of  Ohio),  Hendricks,  Kent,  Knight, 
Moore,  Prentiss,  Preston,  Robbins,  Southard,  Swift, 
Tomlinson,  Webster,  and  White. 

The  debate  on  this  occasion,  as  might  be  supposed,  was  one  of 
great  warmth.     The  question  involved  was,  whether  the  demo- 
cratic branch  of  the  government  should  continue  to  m.aintain  its 
independence  of  the  regal  power  of  the  constitution,  and  be  per 
mitted  freely  to  express  its  opinions ;    or  whether  it  should  sue 
cumb  to  the  mandates  of   the   executive  ? 


132  THE    EXPUNGING    RESOLUTION. 

Mr.  Clay  made  a  speech  worthy  of  himself  on  this  occasion. 
The  following  are  a  few  of  his  concluding  remarks — after  which 
he  retired  from  the  senate-chamber,  resolved  not  to  witness  the  act 
of  degradation  on  that  body,  and  of  national  humiliation,  which 
had  been  decreed  by  absolute  power,  which  was  sustained  by  a 
majority  of  obsequious  senators,  and  which  was  about  to  be  con- 
summated : — 

"Mr.  President,  what  patriotic  purpose  is  to  be  accomplished  by 
this  expunging  resolution!  What  new  honor  or  fresh  laurels  will 
it  win  for  our  common  country?  Is  the  power  of  the  senate  so 
vast  that  it  ought  to  be  circumscribed,  and  that  of  the  president  so 
restricted,  that  it  ought  to  be  extended  ?  What  power  has  the  sen- 
ate? None,  separately.  It  can  only  act  jointly  with  the  other 
house,  or  jointly  with  the  executive.  And  although  the  theory  of 
the  constitution  supposes,  when  consulted  by  him,  it  may  freely 
give  an  affirmative  or  negative  response,  according  to  the  practice, 
as  it  now  exists,  it  has  lost  the  faculty  of  pronouncing  the  negative 
monosyllable.  When  the  senate  expresses  its  deliberate  judgment, 
in  the  form  of  resolution,  that  resolution  has  no  compulsory  force, 
but  appeals  only  to  the  dispassionate  intelligence,  the  calm  reason, 
and  the  sober  judgment  of  the  community.  The  senate  has  no 
army,  no  navy,  no  patronage,  no  lucrative  offices,  nor  glittering 
honors  to  bestow.  Around  us  there  is  no  swarm  of  greedy  ex- 
pectants, rendering  us  homage,  anticipating  our  wishes,  and  ready 
to  execute  our  commands. 

"How  is  it  with  the  president?  Is  he  powerless?  He  is  felt 
from  one  extremity  to  the  other  of  this  vast  republic.  By  means 
of  principles  which  he  has  introduced,  and  innovations  which  he 
has  made  in  our  institutions,  alas  !  but  too  much  countenanced  by 
Congress  and  a  confiding  people,  he  exercises  uncontrolled  the 
power  of  the  state.  In  one  hand  he  holds  the  purse,  and  in  the 
other  brandishes  the  sword  of  the  country.  Myriads  of  dependents 
and  partisans,  scattered  over  the  land,  are  ever  ready  to  sing  ho- 
sannahs  to  him,  and  to  laud  to  the  skies  whatever  he  does.  He 
has  swept  over  the  government,  during  the  last  eight  years,  like  a 
tropical  tornado.  Every  department  exhibits  traces  of  the  ravages 
of  the  storm.  Take,  as  one  example,  the  bank  of  the  United 
States.  No  institution  could  have  been  more  popular  with  the 
people,  with  Congress,  and  with  state  legislatures.  None  ever  bet- 
ter fulfilled  the  great  purposes  of  its  establishment.  But  it  unfortu- 
nately incurred  the  displeasure  of  the  president.  He  spoke,  and  the 
bank  lies  prostrate.  And  those  who  were  loudest  in  its  praise  are 
now  loudest  in  its  condemnation.  What  object  of  his  ambition  is 
unsatisfied?  When  disabled  from  age  any  longer  to  hold  the 
sceptre  of  power,  he  designates  his  successor,  and  transmits  it  to 
his  favorite.     What  more  does  he  want?     Must  we  blot,  deface, 


THE    EXPUNGING    RESOLUTION.  133 

and  mutilate  the  records  of  the  country  to  punish  the  presumptu- 
ousness  of  expressing  an  opinion  contrary  to  his  own? 

"  What  patriotic  purpose  is  to  be  acconipHshed  by  this  expunging 
resolution?  Can  you  make  that  not  to  be  which  has  been  ?  Can 
you  eradicate  from  memory  and  irom  history  the  fact,  that  in  March, 
1834,  a  majority  of  the  senate  of  the  United  States  passed  the  reso- 
lution which  excites  your  enmity?  Is  it  your  vain  and  wicked 
object  to  arrogate  to  yourselves  that  power  of  annihilating  the  past 
wliich  has  been  denied  to  Omnipotence  itself?  Do  you  intend  to 
thrust  your  hands  into  our  hearts,  and  to  pluck  out  the  deeply- 
rooted  convictions  which  are  there  ?  or  is  it  your  design  merely  to 
stigmatize  us?     You  can  not  stigmatize  us. 

"  ' Ne'er  yet  did  base  dishonor  blur  our  name.'" 

"  Standing  securely  upon  our  conscious  rectitude,  and  bearing 
aloft  the  shield  of  the  constitution  of  our  country,  your  puny  efforts 
are  impotent,  and  we  defy  all  your  power.  Put  die  majority  of 
1S34  in  one  scale,  and  that  by  which  this  expunging  resolution  is 
to  be  carried,  in  the  other,  and  let  truth  and  justice,  in  heaven 
above  and  on  the  earth  below,  and  liberty  and  patriotism,  decide 
the  preponderance. 

"  What  patriotic  purpose  is  to  be  accomplished  by  this  expun- 
ging? Is  it  to  appease  the  wrath,  and  to  heal  the  wounded  pride, 
of  the  chief  magistrate  ?  If  he  be  really  the  hero  that  his  friends 
represent  him,  he  must  despise  all  mean  condescension,  all  grovel- 
ling sycopliancy,  all  self-degradadon,  and  self-abasement.  He 
would  reject  with  scorn  and  contempt,  as  unworthy  of  his  fame, 
your  black  scratches,  and  your  baby  hues  in  the  fair  records  of  his 
country.  Black  lines  !  Black  lines  !  Sir,  I  hope  the  secretary 
of  the  senate  will  preserve  the  pen  with  which  he  may  inscribe 
them,  and  present  it  to  that  senator  of  the  majority  whom  he  may 
select  as  a  proud  trophy,  to  be  transmitted  to  his  descendants. 
And  hereafter,  wdien  we  shall  lose  the  forms  of  our  free  institu- 
tions, all  that  now  remain  to  us,  some  future  American  monarch, 
in  gratitude  to  those  by  whose  means  he  has  been  enabled,  upon  the 
ruins  of  civil  liberty,  to  erect  a  throne,  and  to  commemorate  espe- 
cially this  expunging  resolution,  may  institute  a  new  order  of 
knighthood,  and  confer  on  it  the  appropriate  name  of  the  knight 

OF   THE   BLACK  LINES. 

"  But  why  should  I  detain  the  senate,  or  needlessly  waste  my 
breath  in  fruitless  exertions?  The  decree  has  gone  forth.  It  is 
one  of  urgency,  too.  The  deed  is  to  be  done — that  foul  deed,  like 
the  blood-stained  hands  of  the  guilty  Macbeth,  all  ocean's  waters 
will  never  wash  out.  Proceed,  then,  to  the  noble  work  which  lies 
before  you,  and  like  other  skilful  executioners,  do  it  quickly.  And 
when  you  have  perpetrated  it,  go  home  to  the  people,  and  tell 
them  v'hat  glorious  honors  you   have  achieved  for  our  common 


134  THE    EXPUNGING    RESOLUTION. 

country.  Tell  them  that  you  have  extinguished  one  of  the  bright- 
est and  purest  lights  that  ever  burned  at  the  altar  of  civil  liberty. 
Tell  them  that  you  have  silenced  one  of  the  noblest  batteries  that 
ever  thundered  in  defence  of  the  constitution,  and  bravely  spiked 
the  cannon.  Tell  them  that,  henceforward,  no  matter  what  daring 
or  outrageous  act  any  president  may  perform,  you  have  for  ever 
hermetically  sealed  the  mouth  of  the  senate.  Tell  them  that  he 
may  fearlessly  assume  what  power  he  pleases,  snatch  from  its  law- 
ful custody  the  public  purse,  command  a  military  detachment  to 
enter  the  halls  of  the  capitol,  overawe  Congress,  trample  down  the 
constitution,  and  raze  every  bulwark  of  freedom;  but  that  the  sen- 
ate must  stand  mute,  in  silent  submission,  and  not  dare  to  raise  its 
opposing  voice;  that  it  must  wait  until  a  house  of  representatives, 
humbled  and  subdued  like  itself,  and  a  majority  of  it  composed  of 
the  partisans  of  the  president,  shall  prefer  articles  of  impeachment. 
Tell  them,  finally,  that  you  have  restored  the  glorious  doctrine  of 
passive  obedience  and  non-resistance,  and,  if  the  people  do  not 
pour  out  their  indignation  and  imprecations,  I  have  yet  to  learn  the 
character  of  American  freemen." 

When  the  vote  was  about  to  be  taken,  Mr.  Webster,  of  Massa- 
chusetts, in  his  own  behalf,  and  in  behalf  of  his  colleague,  Mr. 
Davis,  addressed  an  oral  protest  to  the  senate,  through  the  presi- 
dent, which,  not  less  for  its  eloquence  and  pertinency,  than  for  the 
valuable  information  which  it  discloses,  is  thought  worthy  of  a 
place  here,  and  may  be  found  in  the  note  below.* 

*  The  debate  having  closed,  and  the  question  being  about  to  be  put,  Mr.  Web- 
ster rose,  and  addressed  the  senate  as  follows  : — 

"  Mr.  President :  Upon  the  truth  and  justice  of  the  original  resolution  of  the  sen- 
ate, and  upon  the  authority  of  the  senate  to  pass  that  resolution,  I  had  an  oppor- 
tunity to  express  my  opinions  at  a  subsequent  period,  when  the  president's  protest 
was  before  us.  These  opinions  remain  altogether  unchanged.  And  now,  had  the 
constitution  secured  the  privilege  of  entering  a  protest  on  the  journal,  I  should  not 
say  one  word  on  this  occasion  ;  although,  if  what  is  now  proposed,  shall  be  ac- 
complished, I  know  not  what  would  have  been  the  value  of  such  a  provision, 
however  formally  or  carefully  it  might  have  been  inserted  in  the  body  of  that  in- 
strument. But,  as  there  is  no  such  constitutional  privilege,  I  can  only  effect  my 
purpose  by  thus  addressing  the  senate;  and  I  rise,  therefore,  to  make  that  prot- 
est in  this  manner,  in  the  face  of  the  senate,  and  in  the  lace  of  the  country, 
which  I  can  not  present  in  any  other  form. 

"  I  speak  in  my  own  behalf,  and  in  behalf  of  my  colleague.  We  both  speak  as 
senators  fiom  the  state  of  Massachusetts,  and  as  such  we  solemnly  protest 
against  this  whole  proceeding.  We  deny  that  senators  from  other  states  have 
any  power  or  authority  to  expunge  any  vote  or  votes  which  we  have  given  here, 
and  which  we  have  recorded  agreeably  to  the  express  provision  of  the  constitu- 
tion. We  have  a  high  personal  interest;  and  the  state  whose  representatives  we 
are,  has  also  a  hii^h  interest  in  the  entire  preservation  of  evei"y  part  and  parcel  of 
the  record  of  our  conduct,  as  members  of  the  senate.  This  record  the  constitu- 
tion solemnly  declares  shall  be  kept.  But  the  resolution  before  the  senate  de- 
clares that  this  record  shall  be  expunged. 

"Whether  subterfuge  or  evasion,  and,  as  it  appears  to  us,  the  degrading  mock- 
ery of  drawing  black  lines  upon  the  journal,  shall  or  shall  not  leave  our  names 
and  our  votes  legible,  when  this  violation  of  the  record  shall  have  been  completed. 


(( 


THE    EXPUNGING    RESOLUTION.  135 

The  expunging  resolution,  preceded  by  a  chapter  of  nine  long 
WHEREASES,"  "like  a  kite  or  a  comet,"  as  Mr.  Clay  said,  "ex- 
cept that  the  order  of  nature  is  inverted,  and  the  tail,  instead  of 

still  the  terms  '  to  expunge,'  and  the  terms  'to  keep,'  when  applied  to  a  rec- 
ord, import  ideas  exactly  contradictory — as  much  so  as  the  terms  to  preserve,  and  the 
terms  to  destroy.  A  record  which  is  expunged,  is  not  a  record  which  is  kept,  any 
more  than  a  record  which  is  destroyed  can  be  a  record  which  is  preserved.  The 
part  expunged  is  no  longer  part  of  the  record.  It  has  no  longer  a  legal  existence. 
It  can  not  be  certified  as  a  part  of  the  proceeding  of  the  senate  for  any  purpose 
of  proof  or  evidence. 

"The  object  of  the  provision  in  the  constitution,  as  we  think,  most  obviously 
is,  that  the  proceedings  of  the  senate  shall  be  preserved  in  writing — not  for  the 
present  only,  not  until  published  only,  because  a  copy  of  the  printed  journal  is  not 
regular  legal  evidence — but  preserved  indefinitely,  preserved  as  other  records  are 
preserved,  till  destroyed  by  time  or  accident. 

"  Every  one  must  see,  that  matters  of  the  highest  importance  depend  on  the 
permanent  preservation  of  the  journals  of  the  two  houses.  What  but  the  jour- 
nals show  that  bills  have  been  regularly  passed  into  laws,  through  the  several 
stages  ?  What  but  the  journal  shows,  who  are  members,  who  is  president  or 
speaker,  or  secretary,  or  clerk  of  the  body  ?  What  but  the  journal  contains  the 
proof  necessary  for  the  justification  of  those  who  act  under  our  authority,  and  who, 
without  the  power  of  producing  such  proof,  must  stand  as  trespassers?  What 
but  the  journals  show  who  is  appointed,  and  who  rejected,  by  us,  on  the  presi- 
dent's nomination  ? — or  who  is  acquitted,  who  convicted,  in  trials  on  impeach- 
ment ?  In  short,  is  there  at  any  time,  any  other  regular  and  legal  proof  of  any 
act  done  by  the  senate  than  the  journal  itself?  The  idea,  therefore,  that  the  sen- 
ate is  bound  to  preserve  its  journal  only  until  it  is  published,  and  then  may  alter, 
mutilate,  or  destroy  it  at  pleasure,  appears  to  us  one  of  the  most  extraordinary 
gentiments  ever  advanced. 

"  We  are  deeply  grateful  to  those  friends  who  have  shown,  with  so  much  clear- 
ness, that  all  the  precedents  relied  upon  to  justify  or  excuse  this  proceeding,  are 
either  not  to  the  purpose,  or  from  times  and  circumstances  at  and  under  which 
they  happened,  are  no  way  entitled  to  respect  in  a  free  government,  existing  un- 
der a  written  constitution.  But  for  ourselves,  we  stand  on  the  plain  words  of  the 
constitution  itself.  A  thousand  precedents  elsewhere  made,  whether  ancient  or 
modern,  can  neither  rescind,  nor  control,  nor  explain  away  these  words.  The 
words  are,  that  '  each  house  shall  keep  a  journal  of  its  proceedings.'  No  gloss, 
no  ingenuity,  no  specious  interpretation — and  much  less  can  any  fair  or  just  rea- 
soning— reconcile  the  process  of  expunging  with  the  plain  meaning  of  these 
words,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  common  sense  and  honest  understanding  of  man- 
kind. 

"If  the  senate  may  now  expunge  one  part  of  the  journal  of  a  former  session,  it 
may  with  equal  authority  expunge  another  part,  or  the  whole.  It  may  expunge 
the  entire  record  of  any  one  session,  or  of  all  sessions.  It  seems  to  us  inconceiv- 
able how  any  man  can  regard  such  a  power,  and  its  exercise  at  pleasure,  as  con- 
sistent with  the  injunction  of  the  constitution.  It  can  make  no  difference  what  is 
the  completeness  or  incompleteness  of  the  act  of  expungins:,  or  by  what  means 
done — whether  by  erasure,  obliteration,  or  defacement.  If  by  defacement,  as  here 
proposed,  whether  one  word,  or  many  words,  are  written  on  the  face  of  the  rec- 
ord— ^whether  little  ink,  or  much  ink,  is  shed  on  the  face  of  the  paper — or  whether 
some  part,  or  the  whole,  of  the  originally  written  journal,  may  yet,  by  possibility, 
be  traced.  If  the  act  done,  be  an  act  to  expunge,  to  blot  out,  to  obliterate,  ta 
erase  the  record,  then  the  record  is  expunged,  blotted  out,  obliterated,  or  erased. 
And  mutilation  and  alteration  violate  the  record,  as  much  as  obliteration  or  era- 
sure. A  record  subsequently  altered,  is  not  the  original  record.  It  no  longer 
gives  a  just  account  of  the  proceedings  of  the  senate.  It  is  no  longer  true.  It  is 
in  short,  no  journal  of  the  real  and  actual  proceedings  of  the  senate,  such  as  the 
constitution  says,  each  house  shall  keep.  The  constitution,  therefore,  is,  in  our 
deliberate  judgment,  violated  by  this  proceeding,  in  the  most  plain  and  open  man- 
ner. 

"The  constitution,  moreover,  provides,  that  the  teas  and  nays  on  any  question 
shall,  at  the  request  of  one  fifth  of  the  members  present,  be  entered  on  the  journal. 


136  THE    EXPUNGING    RESOLUTION. 

being  behind,  is  before  the  body  to  which  it  is  appended" — citing 
facts,  as  a  basis  of  action,  which  were  disputed — was  couched  in 
the  following  terms: — 

*'  Resolved,   That  the  said  resolve  be  expunged  from  the  journal ; 
and  for  that  purpose,  that  the  secretary  of  the  senate,  at  such  time 

This  provision,  most  manifestly,  gives  a  personal  right  to  those  members  who  may 
demand  it,  to  the  entry  and  preservation  of  their  votes  on  the  record  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  body— not  for  one  day,  or  one  year  only,  but  for  all  time.  There 
the  YEAS  and  nays  are  to  stand  for  ever,  as  permanent  and  lasting  proof  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  members  have  voted,  on  great  and  important  questions  before  them. 

"  But  it  is  now  insisted,  that  the  votes  of  members,  taken  by  yeas  and  nay's, 
and  thus  entered  on  the  journal,  as  matter  of  right,  may  still  be  expunged — so  that 
that  wliich  it  requires  more  than  four  fifths  of  the  senators  to  prevent  from  being 
put  on  the  journal,  may,  nevertheless,  be  struck  ofl'  and  erased  the  next  moment, 
or  at  any  period  afterward,  by  the  will  of  a  mere  majority.  Or  if  this  be  not  ad- 
mitted, then  the  absurdity  is  adopted  of  maintaining,  that  this  provision  of  the 
constitution  is  fulfilled  by  merely  preserving  the  y'eas  and  nays  on  the  journal, 
after  having  expunged  and  obliterated  the  very  resolution,  or  the  very  question, 
on  which  they  were  given,  and  to  which  alone  they  refer — leaving  the  yeas  and 
NAYS  thus  a  mere  list  of  names,  connected  with  no  subject,  no  question,  no  vote. 
We  put  it  to  the  impartial  judgment  of  mankind,  if  this  proceeding  be  not,  in  this 
respect  also,  directly  and  palpably  inconsistent  with  the  constitution  ? 

"We  protest,  in  the  most  solemn  manner,  that  other  senators  have  no  authority 
to  deprive  us  of  our  personal  rights,  secured  to  us  by  the  constitution,  either  by 
expunging,  or  obliterating,  or  mutilating,  or  defacing  the  record  of  our  votes  duly 
entered  by  y'eas  and  nay's  ;  or  by  expunging  and  obliterating  the  resolutions  or 
questions  on  which  these  votes  were  given  and  recorded. 

"  We  have  seen,  with  deep  and  sincere  pain,  the  legislatures  of  respectable 
states  instructing  the  senators  of  those  states,  to  vote  for  and  support  this  viola- 
tion of  the  journal  of  the  senate;  and  this  pain  is  infinitely  increased  by  our  full 
belief,  and  entire  conviction,  that  most,  if  not  all  these  proceedings  of  states  had 
their  origin  in  promptings  from  Washington ;  that  they  have  been  urgently  re- 
quested and  insisted  on  as  being  necessary  to  the  accomplishment  of  the  intended 
purpose;  and  that  it  is  nothing  else  but  the  influence  and  power  of  the  executive 
branch  of  this  government,  which  has  brought  the  legislatures  of  so  many  of  the 
free  states  of  this  Union  to  quit  the  sphere  of  their  ordinary  duties  for  the  pur- 
■pose  of  cooperating  to  accomplish  a  measure,  in  our  judgment,  so  unconstitu- 
tional, so  derogatory  to  the  character  of  the  senate,  and  marked  with  so  broad 
an  impression  of  compliance  with  power. 

"  But  this  resolution  is  to  pass.  We  expect  it.  That  cause  which  has  been 
powerful  enough  to  influence  so  many  state  legislatures,  will  show  itself  powerful 
enough,  especially  with  such  aids,  to  secure  the  passage  of  this  resolution  here. 
We  make  up  our  minds  to  behold  the  spectacle  which  is  to  ensue.  We  collect 
ourselves  to  look  on  in  silence,  while  a  scene  is  exhibited,  which,  if  we  did  not 
regard  it  as  ruthless  violation  of  a  sacred  instrument,  would  appear  to  us  to  be  lit- 
tle elevated  above  the  character  of  a  contemptible  farce.  This  scene  we  shall  be- 
hold, and  hundreds  of  American  citizens,  as  many  as  may  crowd  into  these  lobbies 
and  galleries,  will  behold  it  also — with  what  feelings,  I  do  not  undertake  to  say. 

"But  we  PROTEST — we  most  solemnly  protest — aeainst  the  substance,  and 
against  the  manner  of  this  proceeding — against  its  object,  against  its  form,  and 
against  its  efl'ect.  We  tell  you  that  you  have  no  right  to  mar  or  mutilate  the  rec- 
ord of  our  votes  given  here,  and  recorded  according  to  the  constitution.  We  tell 
you,  that  you  may  as  well  erase  the  yeas  and  nays  on  any  other  question  or  res- 
olution, or  on  all  questions  and  resolutions,  as  on  this.  We  tell  you,  that  you 
have  just  as  much  right  to  falsify  the  record,  by  so  altering  it,  as  to  make  us  ap- 
pear to  have  voted  on  any  question  as  we  did  not  vote,  as  you  have  to  erase  a 
record,  and  make  that  page  a  blank,  in  which  our  votes,  as  they  were  actually 
given  and  recorded,  now  stand.  The  one  proceeding,  as  it  appears  to  us,  is  as 
much  a  falsification  of  the  record,  as  the  other. 

"  Having  made  this  protest,  our  duty  is  performed.  We  rescue  our  own  names, 
character,  and  honor,  from  all  participation  in  this  matter ;  and  whatever  the  way- 


THE    EXPUNGING    RESOLUTION.  137 

aS  the  senate  may  appoint,  shall  bring  the  manuscript  journal  of 
the  session  of  1833-'4  into  the  senate,  draw  black  lines  round  the 
said  resolve,  and  write  across  the  face  thereof,  in  strong  letters,  the 
following  words:  Expunged  by  order  of  the   senate,  this 

SIXTEENTH  DAY  OF  JaNUARY,  IN  THE  YEAR  OF  OUR  LoRD, 
EIGHTEEN  HUNDRED  AND  THIRTY-SEVEN." 

When  the  vote  was  taken,  Mr.  Benton  moved,  that  the  act  be 
forthwith  done,  and  as  soon  as  the  secretary  had  executed  the  deed, 
vehement  and  repeated  hisses  were  expressed  in  the  galleries  of  the 
senate-chamber;  whereupon,  Mr.  King,  of  Alabama,  being  in  the 
chair,  ordered  the  galleries  to  be  cleared.  Mr.  Benton  objected, 
and  said :  "Let  the  ruffians  be  apprehended  by  the  sergeant-at- 
arms,  and  brought  to  the  bar  of  the  senate.  Let  him  seize  the 
ruffians — the  bank  ruffians!" 

The  order  of  the  chair  to  clear  the  galleries  was  then  revoked, 
and  the  sergeant-at-arms  directed  to  bring  the  offenders  to  the  bar 
of  the  senate.  This  officer  soon  returned,  having  in  his  custody  "  a 
tall,  well-dressed  man,  wrapped  in  a  black  overcoat,"  name  not 
given,  and  presented  him  at  the  bar.  Mr.  Benton,  allowing  that 
the  public  exposure  was  a  sufficient  punishment,  moved  that  he  be 
discharged;  but  Mr.  Morris  rose  and  said:  "Call  you  this  the  jus- 
tice of  the  senate  of  the  United  States?  Are  citizens  to  be  treated 
in  this  manner — brought  to  the  bar  of  the  senate  without  a  hear- 
ing?" Mr.  Morris  demanded  the  yeas  and  nays,  and  proposed 
that  the  man  be  allowed  a  hearing  and  counsel.  This  Mr.  Benton 
opposed — said  he  might  purge  himself  with  an  oath — and  added — 
"  No  consulting  with  lawyers."  The  yeas  and  nays  being  called, 
27  voted  for  discharge,  and  one  in  the  negative.  The  man  then 
advanced,  and  addressing  the  chair,  said :  "  Mr.  President,  am  I 
not  to  be  permitted  to  speak  in  my  own  defence?"  The  chairman 
turned  to  the  sergeant-at-arms,  and  said:  "Take  him  out!" 
And  thus  the  matter  ended. 

ward  character  of  the  times,  the  headlong  and  plunging  spirit  of  party  devotion, 
or  the  fear  or  the  love  of  power,  may  liave  been  able  to  bring  about  elsewhere,  we 
desire  to  thank  God  that  they  have  not,  as  yet,  overcome  the  love  of  liberty,  fidel- 
ity to  true  republican  principles,  and  a  sacred  regard  for  the  constitution  in  that 
state  whose  soil  was  drenched  to  a  mire,  by  the  first  and  best  blood  of  the  revolu- 
tion. Massachusetts,  as  yet,  has  not  been  conquered  ;  and  while  we  have  the 
honor  to  hold  seats  here  as  her  senators,  we  shall  never  consent  to  a  sacrifice,  ci- 
ther of  her  rights,  or  our  own.  We  shall  never  fail  to  oppose  what  we  regard  as 
a  plain  and  open  violation  of  the  constitution  of  the  country;  and  we  should  have 
thought  ourselves  wholly  unworthy  of  her,  if  we  had  not,  with  all  the  solemnity 
and  earnestness  in  our  power,  protested  against  the  adoption  of  the  resolution 
now  before  the  senate."— (See  Niles's  Register,  vol.  li.,  p.  331,  l836-'37.)  , 


138  THE     PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

A  New  Doctrine  in  Political  Economy. — The  Protective  Policy  and  Freedom  iden- 
tical.— Mr.  Clay's  Debut  on  the  Protective  Policy. — His  first  Speech  in  Con- 
gress on  the  Subject. — Protection  of  the  Interests  of  Navisration. — Navigation 
Acts.— Condition  of  Manufactures  after  the  War  of  1812.— Tariff  of  1816.— Its 
Inadequacy. — The  Unsuccessful  Attempt  for  a  Tariff  in  1820. — Mr.  Clay's  Efforts 
at  that  Time. — Disastrous  Consequences  of  the  Failure. — The  Tariff  of  1824. — 
Mr.  Clay's  Exertions  in  its  behalf. — Machine  Power. — A  Measure  of  the  Wealth 
of  Nations. — Balance  of  Trade. — Policy  of  European  States. — Russian  Policy. 
— Policy  of  Napoleon. — What  the  British  think  of  American  Policy. — American 
Free  Trade  Policy  is  British  Policy. 

The  second  great  branch  of  the  American  system  (that  of  internal 
improvernent  having  been  aheady  considered),  is  the  protective 

POLICY. 

There  is  one  great  principle  in  the  protective  poHcy,  as  it  respects 
tlie  United  States,  yet  to  be  developed.  It  has  frequently  been 
announced  by  sagacious  observers,  but,  so  far  as  the  author  knows, 
has  never  assumed  the  position  of  a  doctrine  in  political  economy. 
The  opposite  of  this  doctrine  has  frequently  dropped,  in  the  shape 
of  confession,  from  the  advocates  of  the  protective  system,  in  the 
following  loose  form  :  That,  if  all  nations  would  adopt  the  system 
of  free  trade,  it  would  be  best  for  all  parties. 

It  is  shown,  in  other  parts  of  this  work,  that  the  protection  of 
labor  in  the  United  States,  against  the  low  prices  to  which  it  is 
doomed  in  Europe  and  other  parts  of  the  world,  is  identical  with 
freedom.  It  is  on  this  principle  that  the  following  proposition  is 
based  :  TJiut  nnicer sal  free  trade,  if  it  could  at  once  he  adoj)tcd  by 
all  vations,  icould  be  destructive  of  American  frecdotn. 

The  opposite  of  this  proposition  is  often  affirmed,  by  advocates 
of  the  protective  system,  as  is  believed,  without  a  consideration  of 
consequences  ;  or,  it  might,  perhaps,  be  more  correct  to  say,  it  is 
admitted  by  them,  as  may  safely  be  done,  since  a  general  agree- 
ment in  such  a  conmiercial  system,  as  universal  free  trade,  is  not 
to  be  expected — is  in  fact  impracticable.     They  say  to  their  oppo- 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  139 

nents  :  "  Secure  to  us  universal  free  trade,  and  we  will  go  with 
you.  But  to  have  free  ports  in  one  nation,  and  not  in  another,  is 
unjust."  This  last  is  commonly,  and  very  properly,  called  one- 
sided free  trade.  There  is  no  difficulty  in  making  out  the  argu- 
ment against  it,  though  it  seems  for  ever  to  he  held  in  debate. 

But,  though  this  pledge  to  go  for  free  trade  on  the  condition  of 
universal  consent,  is  a  very  safe  one,  yet,  with  the  United  States, 
such  a  system  would  be  entirely  destructive  of  the  great  objects  of 
their  government  and  institutions.  If  equality  in  all  other  particu- 
lars could  be  made  a  part  of  the  condition,  it  might  perhaps  do. 
But  such  equality  can  not  be  found,  and  can  not  be  effected.  At 
the  starting  point  of  such  a  universal  free  system,  so  far  as  ports 
of  entry  are  concerned,  American  labor  would  have  to  meet  Euro- 
pean and  other  foreign  labor  on  the  same  level — that  is,  it  would 
have  to  come  down  to  it.  The  state  of  political  society  is  such  in 
Europe,  that  labor  is  depressed,  and  does  not  obtain  its  fair  com- 
pensation. It  is  compelled  to  perform  its  task,  on  an  average,  at 
about  one  third  of  the  price  of  American  labor.  Other  things  be- 
ing equal  (they  never  would  be  exactly  equal,  but  near  enough  to 
give  all  the  required  force  to  the  present  argument),  the  employers 
of  European  labor,  by  the  forbearance  of  their  respective  govern- 
ments on  the  subject  of  taxation — which  would  be  their  policy  for 
a  season — would  be  able  at  once  to  come  into  the  market  at  prices 
which  would  tend  directly  and  effectually  to  reduce  American  labor 
to  the  same  condition  of  bondage  with  European.  It  would  tend 
at  the  same  time,  and  not  less  effectually,  to  break  down  those 
establishments  which  employ  a  large  portion  of  American  labor. 

It  can  not  be  said,  as  shown  elsewhere,  that  this  proves,  that  the 
prices  of  articles  now  protected,  would  be  cheapened,  and  that 
protection  enhances  the  prices  of  such  articles.  They  would  be 
cheapened  no  longer,  and  no  further,  than,  as  a  temporary  policy, 
to  break  down  the  American  producers,  and  subdue  American  labor, 
which  being  accomplished,  and  a  monopoly  acquired — at  least  su- 
perior advantages — the  foreign  factors  would  then  be  able  to  com- 
mand their  own  prices,  and  would  immediately  raise  them  higher 
than  they  ever  are  under  a  system  of  protection,  as  all  experience 
shows.  European  governments,  knowing  that  their  subjects  had 
free  entry  into  American  ports,  would  relax  or  augment  the  bur- 
dens of  taxation,  according  to  circumstances,  maintaining  them  just 
at  the  point,  at  which  they  could  be  sure  to  derive  the  greatest  in- 
come— and  that  must  always  be  the  point  where  their  own  factors 


140  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

could  most  effectually  secure  the  American  market.  European 
taxes  would  rise  just  in  proportion  as  European  factors,  trading 
with  the  United  States,  could  safely  raise  prices,  and  that  would 
always  be  precisely  at  the  point  where  they  could  keep  down  Amer- 
ican establishments  of  the  same  kind. 

The  effect  of  the  system  would  be,  that  the  governments  and 
higher  conditions  of  society  in  Europe,  which  always  absorb  more 
than  half  of  the  fair  compensation  of  European  labor,  and  necessa- 
rily depress  it  to  a  condition  of  hopeless  bondage,  would  be  able 
to  throw  the  same  oppressive  influence  over  American  labor,  and 
reduce  it  to  the  same  condition.  They  would  be  able  to  tax  the 
people  of  the  United  States  just  as  much  as  they  tax  their  own 
subjects,  in  the  same  way,  and  by  the  same  means,  because  there 
would  be  no  obstacle.  Their  own  labor  is  already  down  to  the 
lowest  sufferable  point,  entirely  subject  to  their  control,  and  under 
a  system  of  universal  free  trade,  could  and  would  be  employed  by 
them,  as  an  agency,  to  reduce  American  labor  to  the  same  level. 
It  is  probably  true,  that,  since  the  establishment  of  American  inde- 
pendence, the  American  people,  in  consequence  of  the  imperfect 
system  of  the  American  protective  policy,  have,  indirectly,  by  the 
consumption  of  British  manufactures,  borne  a  burden  of  taxation, 
for  the  support  of  the  British  government  and  British  institutions, 
not  less  than  half  the  amount  imposed  on  British  subjects — all  to 
the  detriment  of  American  interests. 

It  is  not  true,  therefore,  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  can 
safely  go  upon  a  platform  of  universal  free  trade,  if  all  other  nations 
would  consent  to  adopt  it.  It  might  be  true,  if  all  other  things 
were  equal,  if  all  other  nations  were  equally  free,  and  if  none  of 
them  had  superior  advantages  in  the  producing  arts,  already  ac- 
quired, that  would  enable  them,  under  such  a  system,  to  crush 
American  establishments  in  a  state  of  comparative  infancy.  But 
the  inequality  in  these  comprehensive  particulars,  and  in  all  their 
diversified  ramifications,  is  decided  and  great.  Nor  is  there  any 
immediate  prospect,  that  it  will  be  diminished.  Labor  is  the  pro- 
ducer of  wealth,  wealth  is  power,  and  the  state  of  society  in  Europe 
is  designed  to  secure  the  wealth,  and  consequently  the  power,  to 
a  few. 

Labor  in  Europe  constitutes  the  power  of  its  governments,  by 
being  kept  under  their  control,  and  being  forced  to  minister  to  theii 
purposes.  It  is  one  of  their  cares  to  keep  labor  under,  by  robbing 
it  of  its  reward.    On  a  platform  of  free  trade  with  the  United  States, 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  141 

they  would  be  able  to  use  this  power  effectively  against  American 
labor.  It  would  be  absolutely  necessary  for  them  to  do  so,  for  the 
maintenance  of  their  position.  Under  a  system  of  free  trade,  either 
European  labor,  in  such  hands,  and  so  employed,  must  enslave 
American  labor,  or  the  latter  must  emancipate  the  former.  Such 
emancipation  would  be  impossible,  because  American  labor  could 
not  compete  with  European  labor  on  European  ground — certainly 
not  in  any  degree  sufficient  to  relieve  its  condition.  It  could  not 
compete  on  its  own  ground.  American  labor,  therefore,  would  be 
obliged  to  yield,  to  succumb — would  be  reduced  and  enslaved. 

If,  then,  it  should  be  asked,  why  do  not  the  European  govern- 
ments all  go  for  free  trade?  it  may  be  answered,  first,  it  is  con- 
tended by  some,  that  they  are  going  for  it ;  and  if  so,  this,  doubtless, 
is  the  reason,  and  it  is  the  thing,  in  such  a  case,  most  of  all  to  be 
feared  by  the  people  of  the  United  States,  as  they  must  be  aimed 
at  as  victims  of  such  a  seductive  example.  But,  secondly,  it  does 
not  appear  that  the  governments  of  Europe  are  tending  that  way, 
and  so  far  as  England  has  relaxed  her  system  of  imposts,  it  is  shown 
in  another  part  of  this  work,  that  it  is  done  on  the  principle  of  pro- 
tection. Thirdly,  the  commercial  systems  of  Europe,  so  far  as 
they  are  framed  by  the  governments,  are  old,  and  can  not  be  easily 
modified.  All  changes  in  them  must  be  very  gradual  and  very 
slow,  for  their  own  safety.  Fourthly,  they  were  not  framed  in 
view  of  the  United  States,  but  chiefly  in  view  of  each  other,  or  of 
all  the  world  ;  and  though  their  commercial  connexions  with  the 
United  States  have  been  constantly  on  the  increase,  they  are  not 
even  yet  sufficient  to  invoke  a  change  in  their  policy.  They  are 
not  likely  to  consent  to  a  system  of  free  trade,  even  if  the  United 
States  should  be  unwise  enough  to  ask  for  that  which  would  be 
their  ruin.  There  is  probably  no  nation  in  the  world,  that  would 
be  injured  so  soon  and  so  much,  by  a  system  of  universal  free 
trade,  as  the  United  States — simply  because  there  is  no  nation 
where  labor  commands  so  fair  a  compensation.  It  is  labor  first 
and  chiefly  that  realizes  the  benefit  of  the  protective  policy  ;  and 
labor  would  be  the  first  victim  of  free  trade.  Not  that  all  other 
interests  are  not  concerned  in  it ;  but  labor  has  the  greatest  interest. 

It  would,  therefore,  be  fatal  to  the  interests,  and  death  to  the 
freedom,  of  the  United  States,  to  enter  into  a  compact  for  a  uni- 
versal system  of  free  trade,  notwithstanding  it  has  been  supposed 
by  some  of  the  advocates  of  the  protective  policy,  that  it  might  be 
safely  done.    This,  it  is  admitted,  is  a  theory  which  has  little  chance 


142  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

of  being  reduced  to  practical  operation,  for  the  reason  that  univer- 
sal consent  can  never  be  obtained.  Nevertheless,  it  is  a  view  of 
the  subject  which  adds  great  force  to  the  argument  for  protection, 
and  casts  much  light  on  the  protective  system,  as  applicable  to  the 
United  States.  It  is  going  behind  the  usual  purposes  of  the  pro- 
tective policy,  which  are  those  of  interest,  and  showing  how  it  stands 
related  to  that  most  precious  and  most  sacred  of  all  American  rights 
— FREEDOM.  It  undoubtedly  has  a  vital  connexion  with  this  boon. 
It  is  impossible  to  look  at  the  spectacle  of  European  power  and 
authority  over  labor,  and  not  have  some  sense  of  this  relation.  Will 
that  power — that  authority — willingly  relinquish  its  advantages — 
abandon  its  position  ?  It  has  an  iron  grasp  on  the  labor  of  a  con- 
tinent, receiving  more  than  a  moiety  of  its  reward,  any  fraction  of 
which  it  can  afford  to  part  with  for  a  season,  in  a  conflict  with 
American  labor,  with  the  view  of  ultimately  realizing  an  equal  por- 
tion of  the  latter's  reward,  and  reducing  it  to  the  same  condition 
with  the  victim  of  its  own  constant  oppression.  It  is  only  by  ex- 
tending the  shield  of  protection  over  American  labor,  that  it  is  saved 
from  this  doom.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  United  States  should 
indignantly  reject,  if  they  should  receive,  the  offer  of  universal  free 
trade. 

But  the  main  object  now  in  view,  is  to  exhibit  Mr.  Clay's  doc- 
trines on  the  protective  system.  His  dehiit  as  a  statesman,  in  this 
cause,  was  made  in  1808,  at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  in  the  legisla- 
ture of  Kentucky,  when  he  moved  a  resolution  in  that  body,  that 
the  members,  as  an  example  to  the  people,  and  as  an  expression 
of  patriotic  duty  in  giving  countenance  and  support  to  domestic 
manufactures,  should  clothe  themselves,  from  head  to  foot,  in  arti- 
cles of  domestic  fabric  and  production. 

The  first  speech  made  by  Mr.  Clay  in  Congress  on  the  protective 
policy,  was  in  the  senate,  April  6,  1810,  while  in  all  the  freshness 
of  his  youth  as  a  statesman.     The  following  is  an  extract : — 

*'  The  opposition  to  manufacturing  institutions  recalls  to  my 
recollection  the  case  of  a  gentleman,  of  whom  I  have  heard.  He 
had  been  in  the  habit  of  supplying  his  table  from  a  neighboring 
cook  and  confectioner's  shop,  and  proposed  to  his  wife  a  reform, 
in  this  particular.  She  revolted  at  the  idea.  The  sight  of  a  scullion 
was  dreadful,  and  her  delicate  nerves  could  not  bear  the  clattering 
of  kitchen  furniture.  The  gentleman  persisted  in  his  design  :  his 
table  was  thenceforth  cheaper  and  better  supplied,  and  his  neigh- 
bor, the  confectioner,  lost  one  of  his  best  customers.  In  like 
manner.   Dame   Commerce  will   oppose  domestic   manufactures. 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  143 

She  Is  a  flirting,  flippant,  noisy  jade,  and  if  we  are  governed  by 
her  fantasies,  we  shall  never  put  off  tlie  muslins  of  India  and  the 
cloths  of  Europe.  But  I  trust  that  the  yeonaanry  of  the  country, 
the  true  and  fjenuine  landlords  of  this  tenement,  called  the  United 
States,  disregarding  hef  freakg,  will  persevere  in  reform,  until  the 
whole  national  family  is  furnished  by  itself  with  the  clothing  neces- 
sary for  its  own  use. 

"  It  is  a  subject  no  less  of  curiosity  than  of  interest,  to  trace  the 
prejudices  in  favor  of  foreign  fabrics.  In  our  colonial  condition, 
we  were  in  a  complete  state  of  dependence  on  the  parent-country, 
as  it  respected  manufactures,  as  well  as  commerce.  For  many 
years  after  the  war,  such  was  the  partiality  for  her  productions,  in 
this  country,  that  a  gentleman's  head  could  not  withstand  the  influ- 
ence of  solar  heat,  unless  covered  with  a  London  hat;  his  feet 
could  not  bear  the  pebbles,  or  frost,  unless  protected  by  London 
shoes  ;  and  the  comfort  or  ornament  of  his  person  was  only  con- 
sulted when  his  coat  was  cut  out  by  the  shears  of  a  tailor  'just 
from  London.'  At  length,  however,  the  wonderful  discovery  has 
been  made,  that  it  is  not  absolutely  beyond  the  reach  of  American 
skill  and  ingenuity,  to  provide  these  articles,  combining  with  equal 
elegance  greater  durability.  And  I  entertain  no  doubt,  that,  in  a 
short  time,  the  no  less  important  fact  will  be  developed,  that  the 
domestic  manufactories  of  the  United  States,  fostered  by  govern- 
ment, and  aided  by  household  exertions,  are  fully  competent  to 
supply  us  with  at  least  every  necessary  article  of  clothing.  I  there- 
fore, sir,  for  one  (to  use  the  fashionable  cant  of  the  day),  am  in 
favor  of  encouraging  them,  not  to  the  extent  to  which  they  are  car- 
ried in  England,  but  to  such  an  extent  as  will  redeem  us  entirely 
from  all  dependence  on  foreign  countries.  There  is  a  pleasure — 
a  pride  (if  I  may  be  allowed  the  expression,  and  I  pity  those  who 
can  not  feel  the  sentiment) — in  being  clad  in  the  productions  of  our 
own  families.  Others  may  prefer  the  cloths  of  Leeds  and  of  Lon- 
don, but  give  me  those  of  Humphreysville. 

"  The  three  great  subjects  that  claim  the  attention  of  the  national 
legislature,  are  the  interests  of  agriculture,  commerce,  and  manu- 
factures. We  have  had  before  us,  a  proposition  to  afford  a  manly 
protection  to  the  rights  of  commerce,  and  how  has  it  been  treated? 
Rejected  !  You  have  been  solicited  to  promote  agriculture,  by 
increasing  the  facilities  of  internal  communication,  through  the 
means  of  canals  and  roads,  and  what  has  been  done?  Postponed! 
We  are  now  called  upon  to  give  a  trifling  support  to  our  domestic 
manufactures,  and  shall  we  close  the  circle  of  congressional  ineffi- 
ciency, by  adding  this  also  to  the  catalogue  ?" 

The  British  colonial  system,  commonly  so  called,  as  it  applies 
to  the  UnHed  States,  has  been  of  serious  consequence  to  the  navi- 


144  THK    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

gating  interests  of  this  country,  over  which  the  government  is 
equally  bound  to  extend  its  protection,  as  over  other  interests  of 
the  people.  It  is  a  branch  of  the  protective  policy.  After  the 
peace  of  Ghent,  Great  Britain  adopted  measures  to  exclude  the 
navigation  of  the  United  Stales  from  the  British  West  Indies  and 
her  other  American  colonies,  comprehending  a  trade  estimated  at 
six  millions  of  dollars  ;  but  by  a  clause  in  the  second  article  of  the 
convention  of  London,  the  right  of  a  countervailing  policy  was 
left  open  to  the  United  States.  On  the  basis  of  this  right,  an  effort 
was  made  in  Congress,  in  1816,  and  1817,  to  exclude  from  the 
ports  of  the  United  Slates  all  foreign  vessels,  British  or  other, 
trading  with  those  British  possessions,  from  which  American  ves- 
sels were  excluded,  and  Mr.  Clay  supported  the  measure  on  the 
principle  of  retaliation,  with  a  view  to  force  Great  Britain  to  a  reci- 
procity, and  to  recover  those  rights  of  navigation  for  American 
shipping.     He  said  : — 

"  The  policy  of  Great  Britain  was  deeply  laid  in  selfish  con- 
siderations— a  policy  which  she  had  never  relaxed,  except  in  peri- 
ods of  war,  when  it  became  her  interest  to  do  so.  The  question 
w^as,  whether  the  total  exclusion  of  our  ships  from  the  colonial 
ports  of  Great  Britain,  was  such  a  measure  as  we  ought  to  fold  our 
arms  and  submit  to?  The  effect  was  to  deprive  us  of  the  advan- 
laces,  in  the  auirmentation  of  our  commerce,  and  in  the  increase 
of  our  seamen,  which  would  result  from  the  carriage  of  our  own 
produce,  to  the  amount  of  six  millions  of  dollars.  With  regard 
to  the  importance  of  encouraging  our  own  navigation,  he  said,  he 
need  not  resort  to  argument.  Some  measure  ought  to  be  devised, 
by  which  the  navigation  of  Great  Britain  should  be  prevented  from 
enjoying  peculiar  advantages  over  us,  in  a  trade  wherein  reciprocity 
had  been  solemnly  promised  by  the  convention  of  London." 

The  measure,  however,  failed.  In  1S18,  a  like  attempt  w^as 
more  successful  ;  in  1820,  the  act  of  1818  was  superseded  by  a 
new  one;  and  so  again  in  1823 — the  design  of  each  of  which  was 
to  bring  Great  Britain  to  terms.  Attempts  at  negotiation  were 
made  under  the  administration  of  Mr.  John  Q.  Adams,  but  the 
death  of  the  British  prime  minister,  Mr.  Canning,  put  the  question 
into  new  hands,  and  deferred  a  settlement.  In  1829,  Mr.  Louis 
McLane  was  sent  to  London  by  General  Jackson,  with  instructions 
on  this  subject ;  the  question  was  claimed  to  be  advantageously 
settled,  and  the  transaction  much  lauded  ;  the  practical  operation 
of  which,  however,  made  it  worse  than  it  was  before,  and  it  has 
never  yet  been  satisfactorily  arranged.     Nothing  has  proved  more 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  14y 

deceptive,  or  more  injurious  to  the  navigating  interests  of  the  Uni- 
ted States,  than  those  commercial  treaties,  professedly  based  on 
principles  of  reciprocity — a  mock  reciprocity.  The  great  com- 
mercial nations,  such  as  England,  France,  Russia,  Sweden,  Por- 
tugal, Holland,  and  Belgium,  have  taken  good  care  not  to  be 
caught  in  the  American  trap,  and  have  sprung  it  on  the  trappers, 
by  loaning  their  own  craft  to  the  flags  of  the  small  and  non-com- 
mercial states,  such  as  Denmark,  Hamburgh,  Bremen,  Prussia, 
Brazil,  Tuscany,  Rome,  and  Greece,  which  had  nothing  to  lose, 
and  everything  to  gain,  by  arrangements  of  this  kind,  with  the 
United  States.  Thus  the  larger  commercial  powers  have  stolen 
the  benefit,  and  escaped  from  the  obligation  of  reciprocity  ! 

With  this  exception,  the  navigating  interests  of  the  country  have 
received  a  very  fair  protection  from  the  government.  It  is  not, 
perhaps,  commonly  considered  by  those  engaged  in  this  pursuit, 
that  if  this  protection  were  taken  away,  the  American  commercial 
marine  would  not  only  be  chiefly  driven  from  the  seas  by  foreign 
competition,  but  even  the  coasting  trade  of  the  United  States  would 
be  carried  on  by  craft  built  and  manned  in  the  north  of  Europe, 
at  about  half  the  expense  of  American  shipping,  and  at  half  the 
wages  of  American  seamen.  On  the  basis  of  free  trade,  it  would 
be  impossible  for  the  navigation  of  the  United  States  to  compete 
with  foreign  craft. 

But  the  protection  of  domestic  manufactures,  and  of  other  home 
interests,  seems  always  to  have  proved  one  of  the  most  difficult 
questions  in  the  political  economy  of  the  United  States,  though  it 
is  in  fact  one  of  the  simplest  and  plainest. 

The  peace  of  Ghent  left  the  manufactures  of  the  United  States, 
which  had  been  reared  during  the  war  to  answer  the  necessities  of 
the  country,  and  of  which  the  war  itself  was  a  sufficient  protection, 
in  a  defenceless  condition.  The  products  of  British  and  other 
European  manufacture,  poured  into  the  country  at  a  rate  to  threaten 
the  existence  of  American  establishments,  and  the  ruin  of  the  cur- 
rency, by  the  withdrawal  of  specie  to  pay  for  them.  The  tariff 
of  ISIG  was  not  enacted  to  go  into  operation  till  a  year  and  a  half 
after  the  peace  ;  and  when  it  came,  it  proved  equally  inadequate  to 
protect  American  manufactures,  and  to  check  the  alarming  balances 
of  trade  which  were  heaping  up  against  the  nation,  by  the  influx 
of  foreign  products.  Mr.  Clay  had  labored  faithfully  in  1816  to 
get  a  tariff  that  would  answer  the  necessities  of  the  country ;  but 
in  vain.     The    disappointment    and  distress  which  he  predicted, 

Vol.  H.— 10 

# 


146  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 


»r 


followed.  As  the  nation  was  constantly  buying  more  than  it  sold, 
the  money  of  the  country  was  necessarily  required  to  pay  the 
balance  ;  and  like  a  private  individual  who  does  the  same  thing, 
and  precisely  for  the  same  reason,  the  country  grew  poorer  and 
poorer,  till  it  was  compelled  to  stop  payment  by  a  general  bank 
suspension — for  that  is  the  only  mode  in  which  a  nation  stops  pay- 
ment, and  to  which  it  is  necessarily  compelled,  when,  for  a  length 
of  time,  beyond  what  it  can  bear,  it  continues  to  buy  more  than  it 
sells.  The  balance  is  demanded  in  specie,  which  is  drawn  from 
the  banks,  till,  in  self-defence,  they  close  their  vaults.  And  that 
is  the  insolvency  of  a  commercial  nation.  Nor  is  it  an  abuse  of 
the  monetary  system,  as  some  aver.  It  is  real  poverty.  The 
money  is  gone,  and  has  to  be  made  again,  by  living  within  means, 
and  by  hard  work. 

The  general  distress  consequent  on  the  defects  of  the  tariff  of 
1816,  led  to  an  attempt  in  Congress  to  get  up  a  new  one  in  1S20; 
and  on  the  22d  of  March,  of  that  year,  Mr.  Baldwin,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania (afterward  judge  of  the  supreme  court  of  the  United  States, 
and  since  deceased),  reported  a  bill  from  the  committee  of  the 
house  on  manufactures,  to  supply  the  deficiencies  of  the  existing 
tariff.  Justice  Baldwin,  in  speaking  of  Mr.  Clay's  zeal  and  efforts 
for  the  passage  of  this  bill,  once  said,  that  "he  discharged  the 
triple  duties  of  a  rank-and-file  man,  captain,  and  general-in-chief." 
The  bill  passed  the  house  by  a  vote  of  90  to  69,  but  was  lost  in 
the  senate  by  22  to  20.  The  following  are  extracts  from  a  speech 
of  Mr.  Clay  on  that  bill,  in  the  house  of  representatives,  April  20, 
1820  :— 

"  Mr.  Chairman,  whatever  may  be  the  value  of  my  opinions  on 

the  interesting  subject  now  before  us,  they  have  not  been  hastily 

formed.     It  may  possibly  be  recollected  by  some  gentlemen,  that 

'vnressed  them  when  the  existing  tariff  was  adopted  ;  and  that  I 

then  ,    ^ed,  that  the  period  of  the  termination  of  the  war,  during 

which  the  manufacturing  industry  of  the  country  had  received  a 

powerful  spring,  was  precisely  that  period  when  government  was 

alike  impelled,  by  duty  and  interest,  to  protect  it  against  the  free 

admission  of  foreign  fabrics,  consequent  upon  a  state  of  peace.     I 

insisted,  on  that  occasion,  that  a  less  measure  of  protection  would 

prove  more  efficacious,  at  that  time,  than  one  of  greater  extent  at 

a  future  day.     My  wishes  prevailed  only  in  part ;  and  we  are  now 

called  upon  to  decide  whether  we  will  correct  the  error  which,  I 

think,  we  then  committed. 

"  In  considering  the  subject,  the  first  important  inquiry  that  we 
should  make  is,  whether  it  be  desirable  that  such  a  portion  of  the 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  147 

capital  and  labor  of  the  country  should  be  employed  in  the  business 
of  manufacturing,  as  woidd  furnish  a  supply  of  our  necessary 
wants  ?  Since  the  first  colonization  of  America,  the  principal 
direction  of  the  labor  and  capital  of  the  inhabitants,  has  been  to 
produce  raw  materials  for  the  consumption  or  fabrication  of  foreign 
nations.  We  have  always  had,  in  great  abundance,  the  means  of 
subsistence,  but  we  have  derived  chiefly  from  other  countries^,  our 
clothes,  and  the  instruments  of  defence.  Except  during  those 
interruptions  of  commerce  arising  from  a  state  of  war,  or  from 
measures  adopted  for  vindicating  our  commercial  rights,  we  have 
experienced  no  very  great  inconvenience  heretofore  from  this  mode 
of  supply.  The  limited  amount  of  our  surplus  produce,  resulting 
from  the  smallness  of  our  numbers,  and  the  long  and  arduous 
convulsions  of  Europe,  secured  us  good  markets  for  that  surplus 
in  her  ports,  or  those  of  her  colonies.  But  those  convulsions 
have  now  ceased,  and  our  population  has  reached  nearly  ten  mil- 
lions. A  new  epoch  has  arisen  ;  and  it  becomes  us  deliberately  to 
contemplate  our  own  actual  condition,  and  the  relations  which  are 
likely  to  exist  between  us  and  the  other  parts  of  the  world.  The 
actual  state  of  our  population,  and  the  ratio  of  its  progressive  in- 
crease, when  compared  with  the  ratio  of  the  increase  of  the  popu- 
lation of  the  countries  which  have  hitherto  consumed  our  raw  pro- 
duce, seem,  to  me,  alone  to  demonstrate  the  necessity  of  diverting 
some  portion  of  our  industry  from  its  accustomed  channel.  We 
double  our  population  in  about  the  term  of  twenty-five  years.  If 
there  be  no  change  in  the  mode  of  exerting  our  industry,  we  shall 
double,  during  the  same  term,  the  amount  of  our  exportable 
produce.  Europe,  including  such  of  her  colonies  as  we  have  free 
access  to,  taken  altogether,  does  not  duplicate  her  population  in  a 
shorter  term,  probably,  than  one  hundred  years.  The  ratio  of  the 
increase  of  her  capacity  of  consumption,  therefore,  is,  to  that  of 
our  capacity  of  production,  as  one  is  to  four.  And  it  is  manifest, 
from  the  simple  exhibition  of  the  powers  of  the  consuming  coun- 
tries, compared  with  those  of  the  supplying  country,  that  the 
former  are  inadequate  to  the  latter.  It  is  certainly  true,  that  a  por- 
tion of  the  mass  of  our  raw  produce,  which  we  transmit  to  her, 
reverts  to  us  in  a  fabricated  form,  and  that  this  return  augments 
with  our  increasing  population.  This  is,  however,  a  very  incon- 
siderable addition  to  her  actual  ability  to  afford  a  market  for  the 
produce  of  our  industry." 

The  unsuccessful  attempt  to  make  a  new  tariff  in  1S20,  sup- 
ported so  strongly  as  it  was  in  the  house  of  representatives — of 
which  Mr.  Clay  was  then  speaker — but  unfortunately  lost  in  the 
senate,  was  a  very  important  and  eventful  point  in  the  political  his- 
tory of  the  country.  Its  failure  doomed  the  people  to  four  years 
of  incalculable  loss,  and  great   distress,  from  which  they  did  not 


148  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

begin  to  emerge  till  they  were  rescued  by  the  tariff  of  1824.  The 
position  of  Mr.  Clay  in  the  tariff  bill  of  1816,  is  recognised  in  the 
above  extract.  He  then  predicted  what  afterward  came  to  pass, 
resulting  from  the  defects  of  that  law,  and  at  this  time,  as  Mr.  Jus- 
tice Baldwin  certifies,  labored  strenuously  for  an  act  that  would 
enable  the  country,  in  some  degree,  to  regain  what  it  had  lost,  and 
to  protect  itself  in  future.  The  "  new  epoch"  pointed  out  above, 
and  the  reasoning  deduced  therefrom,  have  been  forcibly  illustrated 
by  subsequent  events. 

The  simplicity  of  the  following  citation  will  naturally  produce 
its  proper  effect  with  all  fair  minds  : — 

"  The  wants  of  man  may  be  classed  under  three  heads  :  food, 
raiment,  and  defence.  They  are  felt  alike  in  the  state  of  barbarism 
and  of  civilization.  He  must  be  defended  against  the  ferocious 
beasts  of  prey  in  the  one  condition,  and  against  the  ambition,  vio- 
lence, and  injustice,  incident  to  the  other.  If  he  seeks  to  obtain  a 
supply  of  these  wants  without  giving  an  equivalent,  he  is  a  beggar 
or  a  robber ;  if  by  promising  an  equivalent  which  he  can  not  give, 
he  is  fraudulent;  and  if  by  commerce,  in  which  there  is  perfect 
freedom  on  his  side,  while  he  meets  with  nothing  but  restrictions 
on  the  other,  he  submits  to  an  unjust  and  degrading  inequality. 
What  is  true  of  individuals,  is  equally  so  of  nations.  The  coun- 
try, then,  which  relies  upon  foreign  nations  for  either  of  these  great 
essentials,  is  not,  in  fact,  independent.  Nor  is  it  any  consolation 
for  our  dependence  upon  other  nations,  that  they  are  also  depend- 
ent upon  us,  even  were  it  true.  Every  nation  should  anxiously 
endeavor  to  establish  its  absolute  independence,  and  consequently 
be  able  to  feed,  and  clothe,  and  defend  itself.  H  it  rely  upon  a 
foreign  supply,  that  may  be  cut  off  by  the  caprice  of  the  nation 
yielding  it,  by  war  with  it,  or  even  by  war  with  other  nations.  It 
can  not  be  independent.  But  it  is  not  true,  that  any  other  nations 
depend  upon  us  in  a  degree  anything  like  equal  to  that  of  our  de- 
pendence upon  them,  for  the  great  necessaries  to  which  I  have  re- 
ferred. Every  other  nation  seeks  to  supply  itself  with  them  from 
its  own  resources  ;  and  so  strong  is  the  desire  which  they  feel  to 
accomplish  this  purpose,  that  they  exclude  the  cheaper  foreign  ar- 
ticle, for  the  dearer  home  production.  Witness  the  English  poli- 
cy in  regard  to  corn.  So  selfish,  in  this  respect,  is  the  conduct  of 
other  powers,  that,  in  some  instances,  they  even  prohibit  the  prod- 
uce of  the  industry  of  their  oivn  colonies,  when  it  comes  into  com- 
petition with  the  produce  of  the  parent-country.  All  other  coun- 
tries but  our  own,  exclude  by  high  duties,  or  absolute  prohibitions, 
whatever  they  can  respectively  produce  within  themselves.  The 
truth  is,  and  it  is  in  vain  to  disguise  it,  that  we  are  a  sort  of  de- 
pendent colonies  of  England — politically  free,  commercially  slaves. 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  149 

Gentlemen  tell  us  of  the  advantages  of  a  free  exchange  of  the 
produce  of  the  world.  But  they  tell  us  of  what  has  never  existed, 
does  not  exist,  and  perhaps  never  will  exist.  They  invoke  us  to 
give  perfect  freedom  on  our  side,  while,  in  the  ports  of  every  other 
nation,  we  are  met  with  a  code  of  odious  restrictions,  shutting  out 
entirely  a  great  part  of  our  produce,  and  letting  in  only  so  much 
as  they  can  not  possibly  do  without.  I  will  hereafter  examine 
their  favorite  maxim,  of  leaving  things  to  themselves,  more  partic- 
ularly. At  present,  I  will  only  say  that  I  too  am  a  friend  to  free 
trade,  but  it  must  be  a  free  trade  of  perfect  reciprocity.  If  the 
governing  consideration  were  cheapness  ;  if  national  independencet- 
were  to  weigh  nothing ;  if  honor  nothing ;  why  not  subsidize  for- 
eign powers  to  defend  us  ?  Why  not  hire  Swiss  or  Hessian  mer- 
cenaries to  protect  us '?  Why  not  get  our  arms  of  all  kinds, 
as  we  do  in  part,  the  blankets  and  clothing  of  our  soldiers,  from 
abroad  ?" 

That  a  governor  of  Kentucky  should  have  furnished  such  an 
example,  as  the  following,  was  not  less  honorable  to  himself,  than 
a  proud  boast  of  her  adopted  citizen,  who  was  pleading  so  great  a 
cause  in  the  American  Congress  : — 

"  All  society  is  an  affair  of  mutual  concession.  If  we  expect 
to  derive  the  benefits  which  are  incident  to  it,  we  must  sustain  our 
reasonable  share  of  burdens.  The  great  interests  which  it  is  in- 
tended to  guard  and  cherish,  must  be  supported  by  their  reciprocal 
action  and  reaction.  The  harmony  of  its  parts  is  disturbed,  the 
discipline  which  is  necessary  to  its  order  is  incomplete,  when  one 
of  the  three  great  and  essential  branches  of  its  industry  is  aban- 
doned and  unprotected.  If  you  want  to  find  an  example  of  order, 
of  freedom  from  debt,  of  economy,  of  expenditure  falling  below 
rather  than  exceeding  income,  you  will  go  to  the  well-regulated 
family  of  a  farmer.  You  will  go  to  the  house  of  such  a  man  as 
Isaac  Shelby  ;  you  will  not  find  him  haunting  taverns,  engaged  in 
broils,  prosecuting  angry  lawsuits  ;  you  will  behold  every  member 
of  his  family  clad  with  the  produce  of  their  own  hands,  and  use- 
fully employed — the  spinning-wheel  and  the  loom  in  motion  by 
daybreak.  With  what  pleasure  will  his  wife  carry  you  into  her 
neat  dairy,  lead  you  into  her  storehouse,  and  point  you  to  the 
tablecloths,  the  sheets,  the  counterpanes,  which  lie  on  this  shelf  for 
one  daughter,  or  on  that  for  another,  all  prepared  in  advance  by 
her  provident  care  for  the  day  of  their  respective  marriages.  If 
you  want  to  see  an  opposite  example,  go  to  the  house  of  a  man 
who  manufactures  nothing  at  home,  whose  family  resorts  to  the 
store  for  everything  they  consume.  You  will  find  him  perhaps  in 
the  tavern,  or  at  the  shop  at  the  cross-roads.  He  is  engaged,  with 
the  rum-grog  on  the  table,  taking  depositions  to  make  out  some 


150  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

case  of  usury  or  fraud.  Or  perhaps  he  is  furnishing  to  his  la\v- 
yer  the  materials  to  prepare  a  long  bill  of  injunction  in  some 
intricate  case.  The  sheriff  is  hovering  about  his  farm  to  serve 
some  new  writ.  On  court-days — he  never  misses  attending  them 
— you  will  find  him  eagerly  collecting  his  witnesses  to  defend  him- 
self against  the  merchant  and  doctor's  claims.  Go  to  his  house, 
and,  after  the  short  and  giddy  period  that  his  wife  and  daughters 
have  flirted  about  the  country  in  their  calico  and  muslin  frocks, 
what  a  scene  of  discomfort  and  distress  is  presented  to  you  there ! 
What  the  individual  family  of  Isaac  Shelby  is,  I  wish  to  see  the 
nation  in  the  aggregate  become.  But  I  fear  we  shall  shordy  have 
to  contemplate  its  resemblance  in  the  opposite  picture.  If  states- 
men would  carefully  observe  the  conduct  of  private  individuals  in 
the  management  of  their  own  affairs,  they  would  have  much  surer 
guides  in  promoting  the  interests  of  the  state,  than  the  visionary 
speculadons  of  theoredcal  writers." 

The  iirojct  of  the  following  remarks,  is  one  that  claims  profound 
consideration  by  American  statesmen  and  American  citizens  : — 

"  Let  us  proclaim  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  the  incon- 
testable trnth,  that  our  foreign  trade  must  be  circumscribed  by  the 
altered  state  of  the  \vorld  ;  and,  leaving  it  in  the  possession  of  all 
the  gains  which  it  can  now  possibly  make,  let  us  present  motives 
to  the  capital  and  labor  of  our  country,  to  employ  themselves  in 
fabrication  at  home.  There  is  no  danger  that,  by  a  withdrawal  of 
that  portion  which  is  unprofitably  employed  on  other  objects,  and 
an  application  of  it  to  fabrication,  our  agriculture  would  be  too 
much  cramped.  The  produce  of  it  will  always  come  up  to  the 
foreign  demand.  Such  are  the  superior  allurements  belonging  to 
the  cultivation  of  the  soil  to  all  other  branches  of  industry,  that  it 
will  always  be  preferred  when  it  can  profitably  be  followed.  The 
foreign  demand  will,  in  any  conceivable  state  of  things,  limit  the 
amount  of  the  exportable  produce  of  agriculture.  The  amount 
of  our  exportations  will  form  the  measure  of  our  importations,  and, 
whatever  these  may  be,  they  will  constitute  the  basis  of  the  reve- 
nue derivable  from  customs. 

"  The  manufacturing  system  is  favorable  to  the  maintenance  of 
peace.  Foreign  commerce  is  the  great  source  of  foreign  wars. 
The  eagerness  with  which  we  contend  for  every  branch  of  it,  the 
temptations  which  it  ofTers,  operating  alike  upon  us  and  our  for- 
eign competitors,  produce  constant  collisions.  No  country  on 
earth,  by  the  extent  of  its  superfices,  the  richness  of  its  soil,  the 
variety  of  its  climate,  contains  within  its  own  limits  more  abundant 
facilities  for  supplying  all  our  rational  wants  than  ours  does.  It  is 
not  necessary  or  desirable,  however,  to  cut  off  all  intercourse  with 
foreign  powers.  But,  after  securing  a  supply,  within  ourselves, 
of  all  the  great  essentials  of  life,  there  will  be  ample  scope  still  left 


THE    PROTECTIVE    FOLIC ?.  151 

for  preserving  such  an  intercourse.  If  we  had  no  intercourse  with 
foreign  states,  if  we  adopted  the  policy  of  Cliina,  we  should  have 
no  external  wars.  And  in  proportion  as  we  diminish  our  depen- 
dence upon  them,  shall  we  lessen  the  danger  of  the  recurrence  of 
war.  Our  late  war  would  not  have  existed  if  the  counsels  of  the 
manufacturers  in  England  had  been  listened  to.  They  finally  did 
prevail,  in  their  steady  and  persevering  effort  to  produce  a  repeal 
of  the  orders  in  council ;  but  it  was  too  late  to  prevent  the  war. 
Those  who  attribute  to  the  manufacturing  system  the  burdens  and 
misfortunes  of  that  country,  commit  a  great  error.  These  were 
probably  a  joint  result  of  the  operation  of  the  whole  of  her  system, 
and  the  larger  share  of  it  was  to  be  ascribed  to  her  foreign  com- 
merce, and  to  the  ambition  of  her  rulers,  than  to  any  other  cause. 
The  war  of  our  revolution,  in  which  that  ambition  displayed  its 
monstrous  arrogance  and  pretensions,  laid  the  broad  foundation  of 
that  enormous  debt  under  which  she  now  groans." 

The  most  suicidal  principle  of  free  trade,  '^  laissczfairc,'''  let 
things  alone,  or  let  foreign  commerce  take  care  of  itself,  is  well 
treated  by  Mr.  Clay,  as  follows  : — 

"  Gentlemen  say,  *  We  agree  with  you  ;  you  are  right  in  your 
first  proposition  ;  but,  '  let  things  alone,'  and  they  will  come  right 
in  the  end.'  Now,  I  agree  with  them,  that  things  would  ultimately 
get  right ;  but  not  until  after  a  long  period  of  disorder  and  distress, 
terminating  in  the  impoverishment,  and  perhaps  ruin,  of  the  coun- 
try. Dissolve  government,  reduce  it  to  its  primitive  elements, 
and,  without  any  general  effort  to  reconstruct  it,  there  would  arise, 
out  of  the  anarchy  which  would  ensue,  partial  combinations  for  the 
purpose  of  individual  protection,  which  would  finally  lead  to  a 
social  form,  competent  to  the  conservation  of  peace  within,  and 
the  repulsion  of  force  from  without.  Yet  no  one  would  say,  in 
such  a  state  of  anarchy,  '  let  things  alone'  !  If  gentlemen,  by  their 
favorite  maxim,  mean  only  that,  within  the  bosom  of  the  state, 
things  are  to  be  left  alone,  and  each  individual,  and  each  branch 
of  industry,  allowed  to  pursue  their  respective  interests,  without 
giving  a  preference  to  either,  I  subscribe  to  it.  But  if  they  give 
it  a  more  comprehensive  import ;  if  they  require  that  things  be  left 
alone,  in  respect  not  only  to  interior  action,  but  to  exterior  action 
also  ;  not  only  as  regards  the  operation  of  our  own  government 
upon  the  mass  of  the  interests  of  the  state,  but  as  it  relates  to  the 
operation  of  foreign  governments  upon  that  mass,  I  dissent  from  if. 

"  This  maxim,  in  this  enlarged  sense,  is  indeed  everywhere 
proclaimed,  but  nowhere  practised.  It  is  truth  in  the  books  of 
European  political  economists.  It  is  error  in  the  practical  code 
of  every  European  state.  It  is  not  ap|)lied  where  it  is  most  appli- 
cable ;  it  is  attempted  to  be  introduced  here,  where  it  is  least  appli- 
cable ;  and  even  here  its  friends  propose  to  limit  it  to  the  single 


152  THE    PROTECTIVE     POLICY. 

branch  of  manufacturing  industry,   while   every  other  interest  is 
encouraged  and  protected  according  to  the  pohcy  of  Europe." 

Again  :  "  If  it  [free  trade]  be  not  everywhere  observed,  there 
will  be,  between  the  nation  that  does  not,  and  the  nation  that  does, 
conform  to  it,  an  inequality  alike  condemned  by  honor  and  by 
interest.  If  there  be  no  reciprocity — if,  on  the  one  side,  there  is 
perfect  freedom  of  trade,  and  on  the  other  a  code  of  odious  restric- 
tions, will  gentlemen  still  contend  that  we  are  to  submit  to  such  an 
unprofitable  and  degrading  intercourse  ?  Will  they  require  that 
we  shall  act  upon  the  social  system,  while  every  other  power  acts 
upon  the  selfish  ?  Will  they  demand  of  us  to  throw  widely  open 
our  ports  to  every  nation,  while  all  other  nations  entirely  or  partly 
exclude  theirs  against  our  productions  ?  It  is,  indeed,  possible, 
that  some  pecuniary  advantage  might  be  enjoyed  by  our  country  in 
prosecuting  the  remnant  of  the  trade  which  the  contracted  policy 
of  other  powers  leaves  to  us.  But  what  security  is  there  for  our 
continuing  to  enjoy  even  that  ?  And  is  national  honor,  is  national 
independence,  to  count  as  nothing?  I  will  not  enter  into  a  detail 
of  the  restrictions  with  which  we  are  everywhere  presented  in  for- 
eign countries.  I  will  content  myself  with  asserting  that  they 
take  nothing  from  us  which  they  can  produce  themselves,  upon 
even  worse  terms  than  we  could  supply  them.  Take,  again,  as 
an  example,  the  English  corn-laws.  America  presents  the  image 
of  a  fine,  generous-hearted  young  fellow,  who  had  just  come  to  the 
possession  of  a  rich  estate — an  estate,  which,  however,  requires 
careful  management.  He  makes  nothing — he  buys  everything. 
He  is  surrounded  by  a  parcel  of  Jews,  each  holding  out  his  hand 
with  a  packet  of  buttons  or  pins,  or  some  other  commodity,  for 
sale.  If  he  asks  those  Jews  to  buy  anything  which  his  estate  pro- 
duces, they  tell  him,  '  No — it  is  not  for  our  interest — it  is  not  for 
yours.' — '  Take  this  new  book,'  says  one  of  them,  '  on  political 
economy,  and  you  will  there  perceive  it  is  for  your  interest  to  buy 
from  us,  and  to  Itt  things  alone  in  your  own  country.'  " 

Here  is  the  misfortune — the  trick,  as  it  might,  with  more  pro- 
priety and  truth,  be  called :  Great  Britain  is  the  Jew,  that  has 
furnished  other  nations  with  books  on  political  economy,  to  suit 
herself — not  such  as  she  follows,  but  such  as  she  wishes  them  to 
follow  ;  and  they  are  quoted  in  argument  by  American  free-trade 
statesmen,  who  are,  by  this  means,  Jeived. 

After  the  most  strenuous  efforts  for  the  passage  of  the  tariff  bill  of 
1820,  Mr.  Clay  concluded  his  remarks  in  committee  as  follows: — 

"  Mr.  Chairman,  I  frankly  own  that  I  feel  great  solicitude  for  the 
success  of  this  bill.  The  entire  independence  of  my  country  of 
all  foreign  states,  as  it  respects  a  supply  of  our  essential  wants, 
has  ever  been  with  me  a  favorite  object.     The  war  of  our  revolu- 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  153 

tion  effected  our  political  emancipation.  The  last  war  contributed 
greatly  toward  accomplishing  our  commercial  freedom.  But  our 
complete  independence  will  only  be  consummated  after  the  policy 
of  this  bill  shall  be  recognised  and  adopted.  We  have,  indeed, 
great  difficulties  to  contend  with — old  habits,  colonial  usages,  the 
obduracy  of  the  colonial  spirit,  the  enormous  profits  of  a  foreign 
trade,  prosecuted  under  favorable  circumstances,  which  no  longer 
continue.  I  will  not  despair.  ^  The  cause,  I  verily  believe,  is  the 
cause  of  the  country.  It  may  be  postponed  ;  it  may  be  frustrated 
for  the  moment ;  but  it  must  finally  prevail.  Let  us  endeavor  to 
acquire  for  the  present  Congress,  the  merit  of  having  laid  this  solid 
foundation  of  the  national  prosperity." 

Notwithstanding  the  facts  developed  on  this  occasion,  calling 
for  the  passage  of  this  bill — notwithstanding  the  vigilance,  solici- 
tude, and  fidelity  of  this  sentinel  on  the  watchtower  of  the  land — 
notwithstanding  these  labors,  these  arguments,  these  entreaties — 
the  bill,  as  before  remarked,  was  doomed  to  defeat  in  the  senate, 
and  the  country  went  on  another  four  years  to  fill  up  the  measure 
of  its  distress — to  consummate  the  cycle  of  seven  years  of  the 
greatest  commercial  embarrassment  it  had  endured  since  the  adop- 
tion of  the  federal  constitution,  as  stated  by  Mr.  Clay  in  1832. 
If  Mr.  Clay,  after  having  discharged  his  duties  in  the  house,  by 
aiding  to  pass  the  bill  of  1820,  by  a  vote  of  90  to  69,  could  hare 
had  his  relations  transferred  to  the  senate  for  this  occasion,  it 
would  doubtless  have  been  carried  there,  and  the  country  would 
have  been  benefited  some  hundreds  of  millions.  For  the  loss  to 
the  country,  in  the  loss  of  such  a  bill,  is  not  to  be  estimated  by  the 
positive  disadvantages  alone,  but  by  the  additional  consideration 
of  what  would  have  been  gained  by  it ;  and  it  can  not  be  doubted, 
that  the  country  would  have  been  some  hundreds  of  millions  richer, 
as  is  demonstrated  by  statistical  statements  in  another  chapter. 

In  1824  the  country  was  ripe  for  ruin  or  rescue.  It  was  im- 
possible, that  the  evils  of  the  past  should  be  longer  endured.  The 
tariff  of  181G  had  utterly  failed  to  protect  the  great  interests  of  the 
country.  Mr.  Clay  foresaw,  and  foretold  it.  He  labored  at  the 
time,  in  an  agony  of  concern,  to  have  it  made  adequate.  Not  less 
earnestly,  as  just  seen,  did  he  strive,  at  the  late  day  of  1820,  to 
rectify  these  evils,  and  to  throw  the  shield  of  protection  over  his 
suffering  country.  Onward  rolled  time,  and  onward  the  car  of 
commercial  desolation.  In  1824  most  men  had  waked  up,  neces- 
sarily to  the  distress,  and  apparently  to  some  sense  of  the  perils, 


154  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

of  the  republic,  whose  very  vitals  were  being  consumed  by  the 
vulture-maw  of  foreign  policies  and  foreign  factors. 

Mr.  Clay  had  long  looked  upon  these  impending  and  thick- 
corninf  calamities  with  the  most  anxious  solicitude,  and  labored 
to  avert  them.  It  is  only  in  this  view  of  previous  events,  and 
previous  history,  that  one  can  fully  appreciate  the  manner  and  sen- 
timents of  the  exordium  to  his  speech  in  committee  of  the  house 
of  representatives,  of  March  30th  and  31st,  1824,  when  the  tariff 
of  that  year  was  under  consideration  : — 

"I  am  deeply  sensible,  Mr.  Chairman,  of  the  high  responsibil- 
ity of  my  present  situation.  But  that  responsibility  inspires  me 
with  no  other  apprehension  than  that  I  shall  be  unable  to  fulfil  my 
duty — with  no  other  solicitude  than  that  I  may,  at  least,  in  some 
small  degree,  contribute  to  recall  my  country  from  the  pursuit  of 
a  fatal  policy,  which  appears  to  me  inevitably  to  lead  to  its  impov- 
erishment and  ruin.  I  do  feel  most  awfully  this  responsibility. 
And,  if  it  were  allowable  for  us,  at  the  present  day,  to  imitate  an- 
cient examples,  I  would  invoke  the  aid  of  the  Most  High.  I 
would  anxiously  and  fervently  implore  his  divine  assistance,  that 
he  would  be  graciously  pleased  to  shower  on  my  country  his 
richest  blessings,  and  that  he  would  sustain,  on  this  interesting 
occasion,  the  humble  individual  who  stands  before  him,  and  lend 
him  the  power,  moral  and  physical,  to  perform  the  solemn  duties 
which  now  belong  to  his  public  station." 

Four  years  of  additional  observation,  four  additional  years  of 
deep  and  profound  sympathy  with  a  suffering  country,  and  four 
more  years  of  thought  and  study  on  this  great  theme,  since  his 
labors  in  behalf  of  the  tariff  bill  of  1820,  had  prepared  Mr.  Clay 
for  one  of  the  greatest  and  happiest  efforts  of  his  life,  in  his 
speech  on  the  tariff  bill  of  1824.  One  is  not  so  much  surprised, 
in  view  of  these  facts,  that  he  should,  on  this  occasion,  have  left 
all  his  former  efforts  in  the  same  cause  out  of  sight — that  he 
should  seem  to  be  doing  the  ne  i^lus  ultra  of  what  he  or  any  man 
was  ever  capable.  But  one  is  surprised  to  find  the  same  man,  on 
the  same  subject,  eight  years  afterward  (1832),  in  the  senate  of  the 
United  States,  apparently  going  as  much  beyond  what  he  did  in 
1824,  as  in  1824  he  left  in  the  shade  his  own  earlier  exertions. 
But  in  1832,  the  great  question  had  put  on  new  aspects,  had  in- 
volved new  and  momentous  matters,  roused  to  action  a  new  set  of 
feelings,  and  stood  forth  before  the  world  in  the  forms  of  nullifica- 
tion and  civil  war  !  Patriotism  in  1832  had  two  things  to  look 
after — the  preservation  of  the  protective  policy,  and  the  salvation 


THE    rROTECTIVE    POLICY.  155 

of  the  country  from  domestic  strife  and   bloodshed.     A  compari- 
son, therefore,  of  these  two   miglity  efforts  of  1824   and   1832, 
properly  to  appreciate  them,  should  be  made  in  view  of  the  differ- 
ent states  of  public  affairs  at  these  two  points  of  time.     On  both 
occasions  the  theme  was  exhausted,  as  to  all  the  materials  of  argu- 
ment then  visible  and  tangible;  and  it  is  remarkable,  that  no  new 
idea  on  the  subject,  involving  a  principle,  has  at  any  time  since, 
by  anybody,  been  advanced.     New  facts,  indeed,  have  transpired, 
illustrating  and  establishing  those  principles,  and  the  field  of  argu- 
ment, by  reason  of  such  facts,  has  been  widely  extended.     By 
the  aid  of  new  facts,  the  subject  can  now  be  made  more  clear,  and 
Mr.  Clay's  position  has  been  thoroughly  and  impregnably  fortified 
by  time  and  events.     That,  he  should  have  been  able  so  completely 
to  survey  the  field  for  the  time  being,  is  a  fit  occasion,  not  less  of 
admiration  for  his  talents  as  a  man  and  his  abilities  as  a  statesman, 
than  of  gratitude  for  his  services  and  fidelity  as  an  American  pa- 
triot. 

As  nothing  like  justice  to  these  gigantic  efforts  can  be  done, 
without  copying  the  whole  of  them,  and  inasmuch  as  they  have 
long  been  before  the  public  in  a  variety  of  forms,  it  is  only  pro- 
posed to  make  a  brief  review  of  them  here,  and  a  few  extracts. 

First,  the  speech,  or  speeches,  of  1824.  The  following  extract 
exhibits  at  the  same  time  the  most  succinct  and  lucid  statement  of 
the  difference  of  opinion  on  this  subject,  and  an  amiable  example 
of  charity  toward  opponents : — 

"  Two  classes  of  politicians  divide  the  people  of  the  United 
States.  According  to  the  system  of  one,  the  produce  of  foreign 
, industry  should  be  subjected  to  no  other  impost  than  such  as  may 
be  necessary  to  provide  a  public  revenue;  and  the  produce  of 
American  industry  should  be  left  to  sustain  hself,  if  it  can,  with  no 
other  than  that  incidental  protection,  in  its  competition,  at  home  as 
well  as  abroad,  with  rival  foreign  articles.  According  to  the  system 
of  the  other  class,  while  they  agree  that  the  imposts  should  be 
mainly,  and  may  under  any  modification  be  safely,  relied  on  as  a 
fit  and  convenient  source  of  public  revenue,  they  would  so  adjust 
and  arrange  the  duties  on  foreign  fabrics  as  to  afford  a  gradual  but 
adequate  protection  to  American  industry,  and  lessen  our  depend- 
ence on  foreign  nations  by  securing  a  certain  and  ultimately  a 
cheaper  and  better  supply  of  our  own  wants  from  our  own  abun- 
dant resources.  Both  classes  are  equally  sincere  in  their  respec- 
tive opinions,  equally  honest,  equally  patriotic,  and  desirous  of 
advancing  the  prosperity  of  the  country.  In  the  discussion  and 
consideration  of  these  opposite  opinions,  for  the  purpose  of  ascer- 


156  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

taining  which  has  the  support  of  truth  and  reason,  we  should, 
therefore,  exercise  every  indulgence,  and  the  greatest  spirit  of  mu- 
tual moderation  and  forbearance.  And,  in  our  deliberations  on 
this  great  question,  we  should  look  fearlessly  and  truly  at  the  actual 
condition  of  the  country,  retrace  the  causes  which  have  brought 
us  into  it,  and  snatch,  if  possible,  a  view  of  the  future.  We  should, 
above  all,  consult  experience — the  experience  of  other  nations,  as 
well  as  our  own — as  our  truest  and  most  unerring  guide." 

Then  follows  a  glowing  picture  of  the  distress  of  the  country ; 
next,  an  inquiry  into  the  cause,  which  need  not  here  be  told ;  the 
changed  aspects  of  the  world,  from  a  state  of  war  to  general  peace, 
as  they  affect  the  interests  and  policies  of  nations,  are  considered ; 
the  necessity  of  providing  a  home  market  for  agricultural  produce, 
grows  out  of  this  view;  the  more  rapid  increase  of  population  in 
the  United  States,  than  in  European  countries,  and  the  consequent 
multiplication  of  producing  power,  come  into  the  scale,  and  de- 
mand employment,  which  other  countries  will  not  give  to  it;  for- 
eign consumption  of  the  products  of  American  labor  and  the 
American  soil,  instead  of  increasing,  and  keeping  pace  with  the 
ratio  of  increase  of  producing  power,  had  fallen  off,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  cotton;  it  was  therefore  necessary  to  create  a  home 
market;  the  foreign  demand  for  American  produce,  in  times  of 
peace,  must  continue  to  decrease,  in  relation  to  the  ratio  of  the 
increase  of  population,  here  and  elsewhere ;  such  had  been  the 
fact;  and  liberal  quotations  are  made  by  Mr.  Clay  from  public  and 
other  documents,  to  establish  these  positions. 

"  We  must  then  [said  Mr.  Clay]  change  somewhat  our  course. 
We  must  give  a  new  direction  to  some  portion  of  our  industry. 
We  must  speedily  adopt  a  genuine  American  policy.  Still  cher- 
ishino'  the  forei2;n  market,  let  us  create  also  a  home  market,  to  give 
further  scope  to  the  consumption  of  the  produce  of  American  m- 
dustry.  Let  us  counteract  the  policy  of  foreigners,  and  withdraw 
the  support  which  we  now  give  to  their  industry,  and  stimulate  that 
of  our  own  country.  It  should  be  a  prominent  object  with  wise 
legislators,  to  multiply  the  vocations  and  extend  the  business  of 
society,  as  far  as  it  can  be  done,  by  the  protection  of  our  interests 
at  home,  against  the  injurious  effects  of  foreign  legislation.  Sup- 
pose we  were  a  nation  of  fishermen,  or  of  skippers,  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  every  other  occupation,  and  the  legislature  had  the  power 
to  introduce  the  pursuits  of  agricuUure  and  manufactures,  would 
not  our  happiness  be  promoted  by  an  exertion  of  its  authority? 
All  the  existing  employments  of  society — the  learned  professions — 
commerce — agriculture — are  now  overflowing.  We  stand  in  each 
other's  way.     Hence  the  want  of  employment.     Hence  die  eager 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  157 

pursuit  after  public  stations,  which  I  have  before  glanced  at.  I 
have  been  again  and  again  shocked,  during  this  session,  by  instan- 
ces of  solicitation  for  places,  before  the  vacancies  existed.  The 
pulse  of  incumbents,  who  happen  to  be  taken  ill,  is  not  marked 
with  more  anxiety  by  the  attending  physicians,  than  by  those  who 
desire  to  succeed  them,  though  with  very  opposite  feelings.  Our 
old  friend,  the  faithful  sentinel,  who  has  stood  so  long  at  our  door, 
and  the  gallantry  of  whose  patriotism  deserves  to  be  noticed,  be- 
cause it  was  displayed  when  that  virtue  was  most  rare  and  most 
wanted,  on  a  memorable  occasion  in  this  unfortunate  city,  became 
indisposed  some  weeks  ago.  The  first  intelligence  which  I  had  of 
his  dangerous  illness,  was  by  an  application  for  his  unvacated  place ! 
I  hastened  to  assure  myself  of  the  extent  of  his  danger,  and  was 
happy  to  find  that  the  eagerness  of  succession  outstripped  the 
progress  of  disease.  By  creating  a  new  and  extensive  business, 
then,  we  should  not  only  give  employment  to  those  who  want  it, 
and  augment  the  sum  of  national  wealth,  by  all  that  this  new  busi- 
ness would  create,  but  we  should  meliorate  the  condition  of  those 
who  are  now  engaged  in  existing  employments.  In  Europe,  par- 
ticularly in  Great  Britain,  their  large  standing  armies,  large  navies, 
large  even  on  their  peace  arrangement,  their  established  church, 
afford  to  their  population  employments,  which,  in  that  respect,  the 
happier  constitution  of  our  government  does  not  tolerate  but  in  a 
very  limited  degree.  The  peace  establishments  of  our  army  and 
our  navy,  are  extremely  small,  and  I  hope  ever  will  be.  We  have 
no  established  church,  and  I  trust  never  shall  have.  In  proportion 
as  the  enterprise  of  our  citizens  in  public  employments  is  circum- 
scribed, should  we  excite  and  invigorate  it  in  private  pursuits. 

"  The  creation  of  a  home  market  is  not  only  necessary  to  pro- 
cure for  our  agriculture  a  just  reward  of  its  labors,  but  it  is  indis- 
pensable to  obtain  a  supply  of  our  necessary  vi'ants.  If  we  can  not 
sell,  we  can  not  buy.  That  portion  of  our  population  (and  we 
have  seen  that  it  is  not  less  than  four  fifths)  Avhich  makes  compara- 
tively nothing  that  foreigners  will  buy,  has  nothing  to  make  pur- 
chases with  from  foreigners.  It  is  in  vain  that  we  are  told  of  the 
amount  of  our  exports  supplied  by  the  planting  interest.  They 
may  enable  the  planting  interest  to  supply  all  its  wants ;  but  they 
bring  no  ability  to  the  interests  not  planting;  unless,  which  can  not 
be  pretended,  the  planting  interest  was  an  adequate  vent  for  the 
surplus  produce  of  the  labor  of  all  other  interests.  It  is  in  vain  to 
tantalize  us  with  the  greater  cheapness  of  foreign  fabrics.  There 
must  be  an  ability  to  purchase,  if  an  article  be  obtained,  whatever 
may  be  the  price,  high  or  low,  at  which  it  is  sold.  And  a  cheap 
article  is  as  much  beyond  the  grasp  of  him  who  has  no  means  to 
buy,  as  a  high  one.  Even  if  it  were  true  that  the  American  man- 
ufacturer would  supply  consumption  at  dearer  rates,  it  is  better  to 
have  his  fabrics  than  the  unattainable  foreign  fabrics,  because  it  is 


158  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

better  to  be  ill-supplied  than  not  supplied  at  all.     A  coarse  coat, 
which  will  communicate  warmth   and  cover  nakedness,   is  better 
than  no  coat.      The   superiority  of  the  home  market  results,   first 
from  its  steadiness  and  comparative  certainty  at  all  times ;  secondly, 
from  the  creation  of  reciprocal  interest;  thirdly,  from  its  greater 
security  ;  and  lastly,  from  an  ultimate  and  not  distant  augmentation 
of  consumption    (and   consequently   of  comfort),    from   increased 
quantity  and  reduced  prices.     But  this  home  market,  highly  desi- 
rable as  it  is,  can  only  be  created  and  cherished  by  the  protection 
of  our  own  legislation  against  the  inevitable   prostration  of  our  in- 
dustry, which  must  ensue  from  the  action  of  foreign  policy  and 
legislation.     The  effect  and  the  value  of  this  domestic  care  of  our 
own  interests  will  be  obvious  from  a  k\v  facts  and  considerations. 
Let  us  suppose,  that  half  a  million  of  persons  are  now  employed 
abroad  in  fabricating,  for  our  consumption,  those  articles,  of  which, 
by  the  operation  of  this  bill,  a  supply  is  intended  to  be  provided 
within  ourselves;  that  half  a  million  of  persons    are,   in  effect, 
subsisted  by  us ;  but  their  actual  means  of  subsistence  are  drawn 
from  foreign  agriculture.     If  we  could  transport  them  to  this  coun- 
try, and  incorporate  them  in  the  mass  of  our  own  population,  there 
would  instantly  arise  a  demand  for  an  amount  of  provisions  equal 
to  that  which  would  be  requisite  for  their  subsistence  throughout 
the  whole  year.     That  demand,  in  the  article  of  flour  alone,  would 
not  be  less  than  the  quantity  of  about  nine  hundred  thousand  bar- 
rels, beside  a  proportionate  quantity  of  beef  and  pork,  and  other 
articles  of  subsistence.     But  nine   hundred  thousand  barrels  of 
flour,  exceeds  the  entire  quantity  exported  last  year,  by  nearly 
one   hundred   and    fifty  thousand    barrels.     What   activity  \yould 
not    this    give,    what   cheerfulness    would    it    not    communicate, 
to  our  now  dispirited  farming  interest!     But  if,  instead  of  these 
five  hundred  thousand  artisans  emigrating  from  abroad,  we  give  by 
this  bill  employment  to  an  equal  number  of  our  own  citizens,  now- 
engaged  in  unprofitable  agriculture,  or  idle,  from  the  want  of  busi- 
ness, the  beneficial  effect  upon  the  productions  of  our  farming  la- 
bor would  be  nearly  doubled.     The  quantity  would  be  diminished 
by  a  subtraction  of  the  produce  from  the  labor  of  all  those  who 
should  be  diverted  from  its  pursuits  to  manufacturing  industry,  and 
the  value  of  the  residue  would  be  enhanced,  both  by  that  diminu- 
tion and  the  creation  of  the  home  market,  to  the  extent  supposed. 
And  the  honorable  gentleman  from  Virginia  may  repress  any  ap- 
prehensions which  he  entertains,  that  the  plough  will  be  abandoned, 
and  our  fields  remain  unsown.     For,  under  all  the  modifications  of 
social  industry,  if  you  will  secure  to  it  a  just  reward,  the  greater 
attractions    of   agriculture  will   give  to   it   that  proud   superiority 
which  it  has  always  maintained.     If  we  suppose   no   actual  aban- 
donment of  farming,  but,  what  is  most  likely,  a  gradual  and  imper- 
ceptible employment  of  population  in  the  business  of  manufactu- 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  159 

ring,  instead  of  being  compelled  to  resort  to  agriculture,  the  salu- 
tary efiects  would  be  nearly  the  same.  Is  any  part  of  our  com- 
mon country  likely  to  be  injured  by  a  transfer  of  the  theatre  of 
fabrication,  for  our  own  consumption,  from  Europe  to  America? 
All  that  those  parts,  if  any  there  be,  which  will  not,  and  can  not, 
engage  in  manufactures,  should  require,  is,  that  their  consumption 
should  be  well  supplied;  and  if  the  objects  of  that- consumption 
are  produced  in  other  parts  of  the  Union,  that  can  manufacture, 
far  from  having  on  that  account  any  just  cause  of  complaint,  their 
patriotism  will  and  ought  to  inculcate  a  cheerful  acquiescence  in 
what  essentially  contributes,  and  is  indispensably  neccssan/,  to  the 
prosperity  of  the  common  family." 

No  one  can  fail  to  see,  that,  in  the  foregoing  extract,  Mr. 
Clay  has  laid  out  a  comprehensive  system  of  domestic  political 
economy. 

One  of  the  greatest  errors  or  oversights  which  American  states- 
men, averse  to  the  protective  policy,  have  betrayed  in  political 
economy,  is  perhaps  shutting  their  eyes  to  the  importance  of  artifi- 
cial power  in  its  positive  influence  in  promoting  a  nation's  wealth, 
and  in  its  relative  influence  in  enabhng  the  United  States  to  keep 
pace  with  rival  nations,  especially  with  Great  Britain.  Mr.  Clay 
had  occasion  to  notice,  as  long  ago  as  1824,  that  some  British 
authorities  estimated  the  machine  power  of  Great  Britain  as  equal 
to  two  hundred  millions  of  men.  The  number  of  operatives  to 
apply  this  machinery  has  never  yet  amounted  to  one  million.  Here, 
then,  is  a  nation,  with  a  population  of  some  twenty-five  millions, 
WMth  a  producing  power  of  two  hundred  millions.  Its  capabilities 
of  producing  wealth  by  artificial  means,  is  so  great,  that  its  natural 
power  is  scarcely  worthy  of  being  brought  into  the  account.  To 
this  cause  chiefly  is  attributed  her  prowess  in  her  struggles  against 
the  colossal  power  of  Napoleon,  and  her  ability  at  that  period  to 
afford  such  constant  and  essential  aid  to  her  continental  allies.  One 
man  at  home  did  the  work  of  two  hundred,  less  or  more.  With 
or  without  allies,  she  was  able  to  contend  against  the  power  of 
France,  till  the  victory  of  Waterloo  gave  her  repose,  if  indeed  she 
needed  it. 

Setting  aside,  therefore,  the  considerations  arising  from  the  neces- 
sities of  the  protective  system,  as  a  part  of  political  economy,  na- 
tional pride,  wealth,  and  greatness,  are  concerned  in  concerting  and 
securing  an  equally  rapid  growth  in  power,  for  the  great  political 
ends  of  the  United  States  in  relation  to  rival  nations.  It  is  too 
late  to  question  the  advantages  of  art,  and  its  potency  in  overconi- 


160  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

ing  the  obstacles  of  nature,  in  all  the  pursuits  of  individuals  and  of 
states.  Science,  which  makes  one  man  as  powerful  as  two  hun- 
dred, or  a  thousand,  left  to  their  natural  powers,  will  and  must 
prevail  against  numbers.  That  nation  which  cultivates  the  useful, 
mechanic,  and  manufacturing  arts,  all  which  have  their  foundation 
in  science,  and  which  excels  in  them,  other  things  being  equal, 
will  excel  in  strength,  and  maintain  a  superiority.  Great  Britain 
at  this  moment  is  probably  ten  to  one  stronger  than  the  United 
States,  by  reason  of  these  advantages.  It  is  obvious,  that,  with  a 
constant  liability  to  war  with  that  power,  sound  national  policy 
would  dictate  the  encouragement  of  those  arts,  even  at  expense 
and  sacrifice,  which  so  rapidly  augment  national  strength.  How 
much  more,  when  all  the  great  interests  of  the  commonwealth  are 
shielded  and  promoted  by  the  same  means  ?  A  nation,  whose  arts, 
in  the  present  state  of  the  world,  are  not  adequate  to  supply  its 
own  necessities,  is  poor,  weak,  and  vulnerable.  It  will  be  despised, 
and  may  be  humbled. 

The  following  statistical  argument,  exhibited  by  Mr.  Clay,  in 
his  speech  on  the  protective  policy  in  1824,  is  too  instructive  not 
to  be  worthy  of  every  American  citizen's  attention  : — 

"  If  we  look  at  the  commerce  of  England,  we  shall  perceive  that 
its  prosperous  condition  no  less  denotes  the  immensity  of  her  riches. 
The  average  of  three  years'  exports,  ending  in  17S9,  was  between 
thirteen  and  fourteen  millions.  The  average  for  the  same  term, 
ending  in  1S22,  was  forty  millions  sterling.  The  average  of  the 
imports  for  three  years,  ending  in  1789,  was  seventeen  millions. 
The  average  for  the  same  term,  ending  in  1822,  was  thirty-six 
millions,  showing  a  favorable  balance  of  four  millions.  Thus,  in 
a  period  not  longer  than  that  which  has  elapsed  since  the  establish- 
ment of  our  constitution,  have  the  exports  of  that  kingdom  been 
tripled  ;  and  this  has  mainly  been  the  effect  of  the  power  of 
machinery.  The  total  amount  of  the  commerce  of  Great  Britain 
is  greater  since  the  peace,  by  one  fourth,  than  it  was  during  the 
war.  The  average  of  her  tonnage,  during  the  most  flourishing 
period  of  the  war,  was  two  millions  four  hundred  thousand  tons. 
Its  average,  during  the  three  years,  1819,  1820,  and  1821,  was 
two  millions  six  hundred  thousand,  exhibiting  an  increase  of  two 
hundred  thousand  tons.  If  we  glance  at  some  of  the  more  prom- 
inent articles  of  her  manufactures,  we  shall  be  assisted  in  compre- 
hending the  true  nature  of  the  sources  of  her  riches.  The  amount 
of  cotton  fabrics  exported,  in  the  most  prosperous  year  of  the  war, 
was  eighteen  millions  sterling.  In  the  year  1820,  it  was  sixteen 
millions  six  hundred  thousand  ;  in  1821,  twenty  millions  five  hun- 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  IGi 

dred  thousand;  in  1822,  twenty-one  millions  six  hundred  and 
thiriy-nine  thousand  pounds  sterling ;  presenting  the  astonishing 
increase  in  two  years  of  upward  of  five  millions.  The  total 
amount  of  imports  in  Great  Britain,  from  all  foreign  parts,  of  the 
article  of  cotton  wool,  is  five  millions  sterling.  After  supplying 
most  abundantly  the  consumption  of  cotton  fabrics  within  the 
country  (and  a  people  better  fed  and  clad  and  housed,  are  not  to 
be  found  under  the  sun  than  the  British  nadon),  by  means  of  her 
industry,  she  gives  to  this  cotton  wool  a  new  value,  which  enables 
her  to  sell  to  foreign  nations  to  the  amount  of  twenty-one  millions 
six  hundred  and  thirty-nine  thousand  pounds,  making  a  clear  profit 
of  upward  of  sixteen  millions  five  hundred  thousand  pounds  ster- 
ling!  In  1821,  the  value  of  the  export  of  woollen  manufactures 
was  four  millions  three  hundred  thousand  pounds.  In  ]822,  it 
was  five  millions  five  hundred  thousand  pounds.  The  success  of 
her  restrictive  policy  is  strikingly  illustrated  in  the  article  of  silk. 
In  the  manufacture  of  that  article  she  labors  under  great  disadvan- 
tages, besides  that  of  not  producing  the  raw  material.  She  has 
subdued  them  all,  and  the  increase  of  the  manufacture  has  been 
most  rapid.  Although  she  is  still  unable  to  maintain,  in  foreign 
countries,  a  successful  competition  with  the  silks  of  France,  of 
India,  and  of  Italy,  and  therefore  exports  but  little,  she  gives  to 
the  two  millions  of  the  raw  materials  which  she  imports,  in  various 
forms,  a  value  often  millions,  which  chiefly  enter  into  British  con- 
sumption. Let  us  suppose  that  she  was  dependent  upon  foreign 
nations  for  these  ten  millions,  what  an  injurious  effect  would  it  not 
have  upon  her  commercial  relations  with  them  ?  The  average  of 
the  exports  of  British  manufactures,  during  the  peace,  exceeds  the 
average  of  the  most  productive  years  of  the  war.  The  amount  of 
her  wealth  annually  produced,  is  three  hundred  and  fifty  millions 
sterling,  bearing  a  large  proportion  to  all  of  her  preexisting  wealth. 
The  agricultural  portion  of  it  is  said,  by  the  gentleman  from  Vir- 
ginia, to  be  greater  tiian  that  created  by  any  other  branch  of  her  in- 
dustry. But  that  flows  mainly  from  a  policy  similar  to  that  pro- 
posed by  this  bill.  One  third  only  of  her  population  is  engaged 
in  agriculture  ;  the  other  two  thirds  furnishing  a  market  for  the 
produce  of  that  third.  Withdraw  this  market,  and  what  becomes 
of  her  agriculture  ?  The  power  and  the  wealth  of  Great  Britain 
can  not  be  more  strikingly  illustrated  than  by  a  comparison  of  her 
population  and  revenue  with  those  of  other  countries  and  with  our 
own.  [Here  Mr.  Clay  exhibited  the  following  table,  made  out 
from  authentic  materials.] 

Population.  Taxes  and  public  Taxation 

burdens.  per  capita. 

Russia  in  Europe 37,000,000  £18,000,000  0     9     9 

France,  including  Corsica 30,700,000  37,000,000           1     4     0 

Great  Britain,  exclusive  of  Ireland  (the 
taxes  computed  according  to  the  value 

of  money  on  the  European  continent)..    14,500,000  40,000,000  2  15    0 

Vol.  II.— 11 


162  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

Population.      Taxes  and  public  Taxation 

burdens  per  capita. 

Great  Britain  and  Ireland  collectively...  21,500,000      i;44,000,000  2    0     0 

Ensland  alone 11,600,000         36,000,000  3     2     0 

Spain 11,000,000           6,000.000  Oil     0 

Ireland 7,000,000           4,000.000  Oil     0 

The  United  States  of  America 10,000,000          4,500,000  0     9     0 

From  this  exhibit  we  must  remark,  that  the  wealth  of  Great  Brit- 
ain, and  consequently  her  power,  is  greater  than  that  of  any  of  the 
other  nations  with  which  it  is  compared.  The  amount  of  the  con- 
tributions which  she  draws  from  the  pockets  of  her  subjects,  is  not 
referred  to  for  imitation,  but  as  indicative  of  their  wealth.  The 
burden  of  taxation  is  always  relative  to  the  ability  of  the  subjects 
of  it.  A  poor  nation  can  pay  but  little.  And  the  heavier  taxes  of 
British  subjects,  for  example,  inconsequence  oftheir  greater  wealth, 
may  be  more  easily  borne  than  the  much  lighter  taxes  of  Spanish 
subjects,  in  consequence  of  their  extreme  poverty.  The  object  of 
wise  governments  should  be,  by  sound  legi.-^lation,  so  to  protect  the 
industry  of  their  own  citizens  against  the  policy  of  foreign  powers, 
as  to  give  to  it  the  most  expansive  force  in  the  production  of  wealth. 
Great  Britain  has  ever  acted,  and  still  acts,  on  this  policy.  She 
has  pushed  her  protection  of  British  interest,  further  than  any  other 
nation  has  fostered  its  industry.  The  result  is,  greater  wealth 
among  her  subjects,  and  consequently  greater  ability  to  pay  their 
public  burdens.  If  their  taxation  is  estimated  by  their  iratnral 
labor  alone,  nominally  it  is  greater  than  the  taxation  of  the  subjects 
of  any  other  power.  But,  if  on  a  scale  of  their  natural  and  ar- 
tificial labor,  compounded,  it  is  less  than  the  taxation  of  any  other 
people.  Estimating  it  on  that  scale,  and  assuming  the  aggregate 
of  the  natural  and  artificial  labor  of  the  united  kingdom  to  be  what 
I  have  already  stated,  two  hundred  and  twenty-one  millions  five 
hundred  thousand,  the  actual  taxes  paid  by  a  British  subject,  are 
only  about  three  and  sevenpence  sterling.  Estimating  our  own 
taxes,  on  a  similar  scale — that  is,  supposing  both  descriptions  of 
labor  to  be  equal  to  that  of  twenty  millions  of  able-bodied  per- 
sons— the  amount  of  tax  paid  by  each  soul  in  the  United  States  is 
four  shillings  and  sixpence  sterling. 

"  The  committee  will  observe,  from  this  table,  that  the  measure 
of  the  wealth  of  a  nation  is  indicated  by  the  measure  of  its  pro- 
tection of  its  industry ;  and  that  the  measure  of  the  poverty  of  a 
nation  is  marked  by  that  of  the  degree  in  which  it  neglects  and 
abandons  the  care  of  its  own  industry,  leaving  it  exposed  to  the 
action  of  foreign  powers.  Great  Britain  protects  most  her  indus- 
try, and  the  wealth  of  Great  Britain  is,  consequently,  the  greatest. 
France  is  next  in  the  degree  of  protection,  and  France  is  next  in 
the  order  of  wealth.  Spain  most  neglects  the  duty  of  protecting 
the  industry  of  her  subjects,  and  Spain  is  one  of  the  poorest  of 
European  nations.  Unfortunate  Ireland,  disinherited  or  rendered 
in  her  industry  subservient  to  England,  is  exactly  in  the  same  state 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  163 

of  poverty  with  Spain,  measured  by  the  rule  of  taxation.     And  the 
United  States  are  still  poorer  than  either !" 

These  are  novel  and  startling  views,  even  twenty  years  since 
they  were  first  presented,  and  they  are  unanswerable.  "  And  the 
United  States  are  still  poorer  than  either  !" — poorer  than  poor 
Spain — poorer  than  oppressed  Ireland  !  Such  was  the  state  of 
things,  comparatively,  in  1824.  The  tariff  of  that  year  resuscitated 
the  wealth  and  power  of  the  country,  till  it  was  run  down  again 
under  General  Jackson  and  Mr.  Van  Buren.  The  tariff  of  1842 
is  again  augmenting  the  riches  and  reviving  the  energies  of  the  na- 
tion. In  the  most  prosperous  periods  of  the  country — it  has  never 
been  prosperous  except  by  the  effects  of  a  protective  policy — it  has 
not  even  approximated  to  that  point  of  wealth  and  power  of  which  it 
is  capable.  The  policy  of  the  United  States  has  not  for  the  most  part 
been  one  that  tends  to  secure  the  independence  of  a  nation,  but  the 
contrary.  During  the  European  wars,  the  country  relied  much  on 
the  calamities  of  other  nations — a  species  of  dependence,  not  only 
precarious  in  its  results,  but  most  undesirable.  Even  that  was  dis- 
turbed and  broken  up  by  the  British  orders  in  council  and  the 
French  decrees,  and  the  commerce  of  the  country  was  almost  an- 
nihilated. It  was  not  independence.  A  general  peace,  which 
ought  to  be  the  best  for  any  nation,  was  the  worst  of  all  for  the 
United  States,  as  the  country  had  no  protection  in  favor  of  its  own 
products  and  its  own  labor.  Its  anomalous  policy  required  war 
abroad,  or  war  at  home,  for  protection.  The  former  could  not  be 
relied  upon,  and  the  latter  was  sure  to  run  the  government  in  debt, 
although  it  might  afford  business  to  the  people,  and  the  people  in 
the  end  must  pay  the  debts  thus  contracted.  Mr.  Clay  was  anxious 
to  establish  a  system  of  policy  that  would  make  the  nation  inde- 
pendent in  all  circumstances,  of  war  or  peace — war  at  home,  or 
war  abroad — in  a  general  or  partial  peace  of  die  world. 

The  tariff  bill  of  1824  was  violently  opposed — denounced.  Mr. 
Clay  asked  : — 

"  And  what  is  this  tariff?  It  seems  to  have  been  regarded  as  a 
sort  of  monster,  huge  and  deformed — a  wild  beast,  endowed  with 
tremendous  powers  of  destruction,  about  to  be  let  loose  among  our 
people,  if  not  to  devour  them,  at  least  to  consume  their  substance. 
But  let  us  calm  our  passions,  and  deliberately  survey  this  alarm- 
ing, this  terrific  being.  The  sole  object  of  the  tariff  is  to  tax  the 
produce  of  foreign  industry,  with  the  view  of  promoting  Ameri- 
can industry.  The  tax  is  exclusively  levelled  at  foreign  industry. 
That  is  the  avowed  and  the  direct  purpose  of  the  tariff.     If  it  sub- 


164  THE     PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

jects  any  part  of  American  industry  to  burdens,  that  is  an  effect 
not  intended,  but  is  altogether  incidental,  and  perfectly  voluntary. 
"  It  has  been  treated  as  an  imposition  of  burdens  upon  one  part 
of  the  community  by  design,  for  the  benefit  of  another — as  if,  in 
fact,  money  were  taken  from  the  pockets  of  one  portion  of  the 
people,  and  put  into  the  pockets  of  another.  But  is  that  a  fair 
representation  of  it?  No  man  pays  the  duty  assessed  on  the  for- 
eign article  by  compulsion,  but  voluntarily  ;  and  this  voluntary 
duty,  if  paid,  goes  into  the  common  exchequer,  for  the  common 
benefit  of  all.  Consumption  has  four  objects  of  choice.  First,  it 
may  abstain  from  the  use  of  the  foreign  article,  and  thus  avoid  the 
payment  of  the  tax.  Second,  it  may  employ  the  rival  American 
fabric.  Third,  it  may  engage  in  the  business  of  manufacturing, 
which  this  bill  is  designed  to  foster.  Fourth,  or  it  may  supply 
itself  from  the  household  manufactures." 

In  this  speech  of  1824 — now  more  than  twenty  years  since — 
Mr.  Clay  answered  most  triumphantly  the  objection  of  the  cotton- 
planting  interest,  that  the  tariff  would  cut  off  the  market  for  cotton, 
not  only  by  showing  a  tacit  compact  between  the  cotto.n  grov/er  and 
the  British  manufacturer,  which  put  the  former  in  the  power  of  the 
latter,  but  by  the  exhibition  of  the  fact,  as  it  then  stood,  that,  out  of 
the  five  millions  sterling  worth  of  the  raw  material  bought  by  British 
manufacturers  of  American  planters,  after  supplying  the  home  con- 
sumption of  the  British  empire  with  cotton  fabrics,  they  sold  to 
foreign  parts  to  the  amount  of  twentj'-one  millions  and  a  half  ster- 
ling, only  one  million  and  a  half  of  which  came  to  the  United 
States.  It  was  therefore  absurd  to  suppose,  that  the  British  man- 
ufacturers would  not  continue  their  demand  for  the  raw  material, 
to  the  extent  of  their  market  for  the  manufactured  products  ;  and 
if  the  American  tariff  should  operate  to  supply  the  American  de- 
mand, to  the  amount  of  a  million  and  a  half  sterling,  the  raw  ma- 
terial would  of  course  come  from  the  American  planter,  and  the 
country  would  save  the  increased  value  of  many  to  one,  in  the 
fabrics,  in  which  the  American  planter  would  have  his  share.  In 
confirmation  of  the  validity  of  this  argument,  such,  since  that 
time,  have  been  the  results  of  actual  experience. 

Mr.  Clay  shows  very  clearly,  that  navigation  is  second  in  the 
order  of  nature  to  agriculture  and  manufactures,  and  can  only 
prosper  as  they  do. 

"  It  is  next  contended  [says  Mr.  Clay]  that  the  effect  of  the 
measure  [the  proposed  tariff]  will  be  to  diminish  our  foreign  com- 
merce. The  objection  assumes,  what  I  have  endeavored  to  con- 
trovert, that  there  will  be  a  reduction  in  the  value  of  our  exports. 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  166 

Commerce  is  an  exchange  of  commodities.     Whatever  will  tend 
to   augment  the  vveahh  of  a  nation   must  increase  its  capacity  to 
make  these  exchanges.     By  new  productions,  or  creating  new  val- 
ues in  the  fabricated  forms  which  shall  be  given  to  old  objects  of 
our  industry,  we  shall  give  to  commerce  a  fresh  spring,  a  new  ali- 
ment.    The  foreign  commerce  of  the  country,  from  causes,  some 
of  which  I  have  endeavored  to  point  out,  has  been  extended  as 
far  as  it  can  be.     And  I  think  there  can  be  but  little  doubt  that  the 
balance  of  trade  is,  and  for  some  time  past  has  been,  against  us. 
I  was  surprised  to  hear  the  learned  gentleman  from  Massachusetts 
[Mr.  Webster]   rejecting,  as  a  detected  and  exploded  fallacy,  the 
idea  of  a  balance  of  trade.     I  have  not  time  nor  inclination  now 
to  discuss  that  topic.     But  I  will  observe,  that  all  nations  act  upon 
the  supposition  of  the  reality  of  its  existence,  and  seek  to  avoid  a 
trade,  the  balance  of  which  is  unfavorable,  and  to  foster  that  which 
presents  a  favorable  balance.     However  the  account  be  made  up, 
whatever  may  be  the  items  of  a  trade,  commodities,  fishing  indus- 
try, marine  labor,  the  carrying  trade,  all  of  which  I  admit  should 
be  comprehended,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  I  think,  that  the  totality 
of  the  exchanges  of  all  descriptions  made  by  one  nation  with  an- 
other, or  against  the  totality  of  the  exchanges  of  all  other  nations 
together,  may  be  such  as  to   present  the  state  of  an  unfavorable 
balance  with  the  one  or  with  all.     It  is  true  that,  in  the  long  run, 
the  measures  of  these  exchanges,  that  is,  the  totality  in  value  of 
what  is  given   and  of  what  is  received,  must  be  equal   to  each 
other.     But  great  distress  may  be  felt  long  before  the  counterpoise 
can  be  effected.     In  the  meantime,  there  will  be  an  export  of  the 
precious  metals,  to  the  deep  injury  of  internal  trade,  an  unfavor- 
able state  of  exchange,  an  export  of  public  securities,  a  resort  to 
credit,  debt,  mortgages.     Most  of,  if  not  all,  these  circumstances, 
are  believed  now  to  be  indicated  by  our  country,  in  its  foreign  com- 
mercial relations.     What  have  we  received,  for  example,  for  the 
public  stocks  sent  to  England?     Goods.     But  those  stocks  are 
our   bond,   which   must  be  paid.     Although  the  solidity   of   the 
credit  of  the  English  public  securities  is  not  surpassed  by  that  of 
our  own,  strong  as  it  jusdy  is,  when  have  we  seen  English  stocks 
sold  in  our  market,  and  regularly  quoted  in  the   prices  current,  as 
American  stocks  are  in  Enirland?     An  unfavorable  balance  with 
one  nation,  vuiy  be  made  up  by  a  favorable  balance  with  other  na- 
tions ;  but  the  fact  of  the  existence  of  that  unfavorable  balance  is 
strong  presumptive  evidence  against  the  trade.     Commerce  will 
regulate  itself!      Yes,  and  the  extravagance  of  a  spendthrift  heir, 
who  squanders  the  rich  patrimony  which  has  descended  to  him, 
will  regulate  itself  ultimately.      But  it  will  be  a  regulation  which 
will  exhibit  him  in  the  end  safely  confined  within  the  walls  of  a 
jail.     Commerce  will  regulate  itself!      But  is  it  not  the  duty  of 
wise  governments  to  w^atcli  its  course,  and,  beforehand,  to  provide 


166  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

ao-ainst  even  distant  evils,  by  prudent  legislation  stimulating  tlie 
industry  of  their  own  people,  and  checking  the  policy  of  foreign 
powers  as  it  operates  on  them  ?  The  supply,  then,  of  the  sub- 
jects of  foreign  commerce,  no  less  than  the  supply  of  consump- 
tion at  home,  requires  of  us  to  give  a  portion  of  our  labor  such 
a  direction  as  will  enable  us  to  produce  them.  That  is  the  object 
of  the  measure  under  consideration,  and  I  can  not  doubt  that,  if 
adopted,  it  will  accomplish  its  object." 

Without  pretending,  but  professedly  declining,  to  discuss  the 
subject  of  the  balance  of  trade,  which  has  been  so  much  mystified 
by  theorists,  Mr.  Clay,  in  the  foregoing  extract,  has  shed  more 
light  upon  it,  by  a  few  common-sense  and  practical  remarks — 
which,  in  fact,  comprehend  the  whole  question — more,  perhaps, 
than  all  the  tomes  which  political  economists,  so  called,  have  im- 
posed upon  the  world,  too  often  to  darken  it.  Mr.  Clay  has 
clearly  indicated  what  things  are  to  be  considered  to  determine 
the  balance  of  trade.  But  to  say,  that  there  is  no  such  thing,  or 
that  it  is  a  "  detected  and  exploded  fallacy,"  is  as  false  and  as  ab- 
surd, as  to  say,  that  two  are  equal  to  three,  or  more  than  three  ; 
or  that  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  a  balance  due  from  one  party 
to  another.  A  nation  that  habitually  buys  more  than  it  sells,  is 
as  truly  a  loser  as  an  individual  person  that  does  the  same  thing, 
and  will  for  the  same  reason  get  in  trouble,  and  sooner  or  later  be- 
come insolvent ;  and  the  balance  of  trade  between  any  one  nation 
and  all  other  nations,  is  precisely  the  same  thing  practically,  as  the 
showing  of  the  books  of  a  counting  or  a  banking  house,  when  all 
the  proper  items  are  considered. 

It  is  a  singular  fact,  that  Mr.  Clay  was  obliged  to  show,  that  the 
tariff  of  1824  would  not  diminish  the  revenue.  The  same  objec- 
tion was  made  to  the  tariff  of  1842  by  the  successful  candidate  for 
the  presidency  in  1844,  and  by  others  of  the  same  school.  Mr. 
Polk,  in  his  speech  at  Madison,  Tennessee,  1843,  is  represented 
to  have  said  :  ''  It  [the  tariff  of  1842]  will  not  produce  annually 
HALF  the  amount  of  revenue  which  would  have  been  produced  by 
the  lower  rates  of  the  compromise  act."  These  "  lower  rates," 
that  is,  for  the  condition  of  things,  June  30,  1842,  as  shown  in 
House  Document  No.  420,  1st  session,  28th  Congress,  did  not 
exceed  $12,800,000  annually;  and  half  of  this,  Mr.  Polk's 
maximum  gauge  for  the  revenue  under  the  tariff  of  1842,  would 
be  $6,400,000  ;  whereas,  it  has  produced  about  four  times  as 
much. 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  167 

Another  objection  earnestly  brought  against  the  tariff  bill  of  1824, 
was,  that  it  would  be  a  failure.  Nature,  it  was  contended,  had  in- 
dicated the  natural  occupation  of  man  in  North  America,  to  wit,  a 
culture  of  the  soil.  As  if  nature  had  not  given  the  same  hints  in 
other  quarters  of  the  world  ;  as  if  the  coundess  rivers,  streams,  and 
waterfalls  of  the  United  States,  had  given  no  advice  on  this  point ; 
as  if  the  lakes,  bays,  and  other  inland  water-channels,  did  not  invite 
trade,  which  could  have  no  occupation  without  the  arts  ;  as  if  this 
great  continent,  abounding  in  all  the  resources  of  nature,  were  to 
afford  no  other  sustenance  to  the  human  family,  but  the  milk  of  its 
own  breasts  ;  as  if  all  its  tenants,  like  the  aborigines,  served  by 
woman  in  slavery,  were  destined  to  vegetate  on  corn,  and  decay 
for  want  of  employment;  as  if  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  transplanted 
to  another  and  better  country,  would  consent  to  fall  behind  the 
rest  of  the  world,  or  allow  their  brethren  of  the  original  stock  to 
outstrip  them  in  art  or  enterprise  ;  as  if  that  people,  known  to  all 
the  world  as  Americans,  and  who  alone  are  thought  of  in  Europe 
under  this  name,  would  willingly  be  dependent ;  as  if  they  would 
for  ever  sweat  and  toil  in  the  field  to  supply  the  raw  material  for  a 
more  delicate  and  refined  race,  that  would  condescend  to  return 
them  the  wrought  product,  wrung  in  agony  from  their  own  slaves, 
at  a  cost  five  or  ten  times  enhanced,  and  draw  away  all  the  earn- 
ings of  the  American  laborer ;  as  if  America  were  not  a  world  in 
itself,  and  able  by  its  ingenuity  and  skill  to  supply  every  luxury, 
as  well  as  every  necessity ;  as  if  the  lovers  of  freedom  had  turned 
their  backs  on  the  old  world,  to  become  greater  slaves  than  they 
were  before  ;  as  if  the  powers  of  invention  were  native  only  to  the 
European  continent,  or  the  Eastern  world  ;  as  if  the  moment  a  man 
crosses  the  sea  from  east  to  west,  he  is  doomed  to  repress  all  the 
nobler  faculties  of  his  soul  ;  as  if  genius  and  art  could  not  flourish 
in  the  western  hemisphere  ;  as  if,  in  short,  America  were  fit  only 
to  be  a  dependent  colony  of  Europe. 

The  question  involved  is  neither  less  nor  more  than  that  of  de- 
pendence or  independence — whether  America  can  do  without  Eu- 
rope, or  is  to  have  connexions  on  fair  terms,  and  equally  honorable 
to  both  parties.  A  people  without  art  are  fit  only  to  be  slaves,  and 
are  easily  made  such.  A  nation  that  is  only  the  producer  of  raw 
materials,  can  never  claim  equality  with  nations,  which,  by  science 
and  art,  add  many  values  to  those  materials,  and  send  them  back 
as  a  tax  on  those  who  consent  to  do  such  service.  It  is  a  state  of 
dependence,  and  not  of  independence. 


168  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

Another  form  of  argument  employed  by  the  opponents  of  the 
tariff  bill  of  1824 — one  that  is  common  at  all  limes — was,  that 
manufactures  would  rise  of  themselves,  without  the  aid  of  pro- 
tection. 

To  this,  Mr.  Clay  replied  : — 

"  Tf  I  am  asked,  why  unprotected  industry  should  not  succeed 
in  a  struggle  with  protected  industry,  I  answer,  the  fact  has  ever 
been  so,  and  that  is  sufficient;  I  reply,  that  uniform  experience 
evinces  that  it  can  not  succeed  in  such  an  unequal  contest,  and 
that  is  sufficient.  If  we  speculate  on  the  causes  of  this  universal 
truth,  we  may  differ  about  them.  Still  the  indisputable  fact  remains. 
And  we  should  be  as  unwise  in  not  availing  ourselves  of  the  guide 
which  it  furnishes,  as  a  man  would  be,  who  should  refuse  to  bask 
in  the  rays  of  the  sun,  because  he  could  not  agree  with  Judge 
Woodward  as  to  the  nature  of  the  substance  of  that  planet,  to  which 
we  are  indebted  for  heat  and  light.  If  I  were  to  attempt  to  par- 
ticularize the  causes  which  prevent  the  success  of  the  manufactur- 
ing arts,  without  protection,  I  should  say  that  they  are,  first,  the 
obduracy  of  fixed  habits.  No  nation,  no  individual,  will  easily 
change  an  established  course  of  business,  even  if  it  be  unprofita- 
ble ;  and  least  of  all  is  an  agricultural  people  prone  to  innovation. 
With  what  reluctance  do  they  not  adopt  improvements  in  the  in- 
struments of  husbandry,  or  in  modes  of  cultivation  !  If  the  farmer 
makes  a  good  crop,  and  sells  it  badly,  or  makes  a  short  crop, 
buoyed  up  by  hope,  he  perseveres,  and  trusts  that  a  favorable  change 
of  the  market,  or  of  the  seasons,  will  enable  him,  in  the  succeed- 
ing year,  to  repair  the  misfortunes  of  the  past.  Secondly,  the  un- 
certainty, fluctuation,  and  unsteadiness  of  the  home  market,  when 
liable  to  an  unrestricted  influx  of  fabrics  from  all  foreign  nations ; 
and  thirdly,  the  superior  advance  of  skill,  and  amount  of  capital, 
which  foreign  nations  have  obtained,  by  the  protection  of  their  own 
industry.  From  the  latter,  or  from  other  causes,  the  unprotected 
manufactures  of  a  country  are  exposed  to  the  danger  of  being 
crushed  in  their  infancy,  either  by  the  design,  or  from  the  neces- 
sities of  foreiOT  manufacturers.  Gentlemen  are  incredulous  as 
to  the  attempts  of  foreign  merchants  and  manufacturers  to  accom- 
plish the  destruction  of  ours.  Why  should  they  not  make  such 
attempts?  If  the  Scottish  manufacturer,  by  surcharging  our  mar- 
ket, in  one  year,  with  the  article  of  cotton  bagging,  for  example, 
should  so  reduce  the  price  as  to  discourage  and  put  down  the 
home  manufacture,  he  would  secure  to  himself  the  monopoly  of 
the  supply.  And  now,  having  the  exclusive  possession  of  the 
market,  perhaps  for  a  long  term  of  years,  he  might  be  more  than 
indemnified  for  his  first  loss,  in  the  subsequent  rise  in  the  price  of 
the  article.  What  have  we  not  seen  under  our  own  eyes  !  The 
competition  for  tlie  transportation  of  the  mail,  between  this  place 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  169 

and  Baltimore,  became  so  excited,  that  to  obtain  it  an  individual 
offered,  at  great  loss,  to  carry  it  a  whole  year  for  one  dollar  !  His 
calculation  no  doubt  was,  that,  by  driving  his  competitor  off  the 
road,  and  securing  to  himself  the  carriage  of  the  mail,  he  would  be 
afterward  able  to  repair  his  original  loss  by  new  contracts  with  the 
department.  But  the  necessities  of  foreign  manufacturers,  without 
imputing  to  them  any  sinister  design,  may  oblige  them  to  throw 
into  our  markets  the  fabrics  which  have  accumulated  on  their 
hands,  in  consequence  of  obstruction  in  the  ordinary  vents,  or  from 
over-calculation  ;  and  the  forced  sales,  at  losing  prices,  may  pros- 
trate our  establishments.  From  this  view  of  the  subject,  it  follows, 
that,  if  we  would  place  die  industry  of  our  country  upon  a  solid 
and  unshakable  foundation,  we  must  adopt  the  protecting  policy, 
which  has  everywhere  succeeded,  and  reject  that  which  would 
abandon  it,  which  has  everywhere  failed." 

England  commenced  her  war  on  American  manufactures  in 
1699,  and  continued  it  to  the  war  of  the  Revolution.  Lord  Chat- 
ham said,  in  parliament,  "  He  would  not  have  the  Americans  make 
a  hobnail,^'  Another  noble  lord  added,  "  Nor  a  razor  to  shave 
Uieir  beards."  Mr.  Brougham,  now  Lord  Brougham,  said,  in  the 
house  of  commons,  in  1816,  "  It  was  well  worth  while,  by  this  glut 
[excessive  exports  to  America],  to  st/Jle  in  the  cradle  those  rising 
manufactories  in  the  United  States,  which  the  war  had  forced  into 
existence."  Mr.  Robertson,  another  member,  speaking  of  British 
policy,  confessed,  that  it  "  was  nothing  more  nor  less  than  for  us 
[the  English]  to  get  a  monopoly  of  all  markets  for  our  manufac- 
tures, and  to  prevent  other  nations,  one  and  all,  from  engaging  in 
them."  The  London  Spectator,  in  1843,  says  :  "  More  general 
considerations  tend  to  show,  that  the  trade  between  the  two  coun- 
tries most  beneficial  to  both,  must  be  what  is  commonly  called  a 
colonial  trade — the  new-settled  country  importing  the  manufactures 
of  the  old,  in  exchange  for  its  own  raw  produce.  In  all  econom- 
ical relations,  the  United  States  still  stand  to  England  in  the  rela- 
tion of  colony  to  mother-country.''''  Again  :  "  Both  England  and 
the  United  States  are  suffering,  because  the  colo7iial  relation  has 
been  broken  ;  because  the  surplus  capital  of  England  does  not  find 
its  way  to  America,  along  with  the  stragglers  of  its  surplus  popu- 
lation ;  and  because  the  raw  produce  of  America,  through  the  in- 
fluence of  restrictive  duties,  and  for  want  of  that  capital,  can  not 
find  its  way  to  England." 

This  reasoning  of  British  statesmen  and  British  writers,  is  cer- 
tainly plain  enough  to  be  understood  and  appreciated  on  this  side 


170  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

of  the  Atlantic,  and  sufficiently  evinces  the  correctness  and  valid- 
ity of  Mr.  Clay's  argument  on  this  point.  Immediately  after  the 
war,  as  stated  by  Mr.  Clay  in  another  part  of  this  speech,  "the 
influx  of  the  Scottish  manufacture  of  cotton  bagging,  prostrated  the 
American  establishments.  The  consequence  was,  that  the  Scotch 
possessed  a  monopoly  of  the  supply,  and  the  price  of  it  rose,  and 
aitained  the  year  before  last  [1822]  a  price  which  amounted  to 
more  than  an  equivalent  for  ten  years  of  protection  of  the  Ameri- 
can manufacture."  This  tempted  the  American  manufacturers  to 
resuscitate  their  establishments,  which  reduced  the  price,  and  they 
would  have  fallen  again  in  the  competition,  but  for  the  protection 
of  the  tariff  of  1824.     This  case  is  an  exact  picture  of  all  others. 

The  fallacy  of  what  is  called  the  incidentul  protection  of  a  mere 
revenue  tariff,  was  exposed  by  Mr.  Clay  at  this  time,  and  made 
obvious  how  it  might  be  no  protection  at  all,  because  inadequate. 

As  now,  so  also  in  1824,  it  was  urged,  that  Great  Britain  was 
relaxing  her  prohibitory  and  restrictive  policy.  But  Mr.  Clay 
showed,  that,  in  every  case  of  fact  adduced  in  evidence,  she 
relaxed  in  one  point,  only  to  gain  a  greater  advantage  in  another — 
to  extend  and  fortify  her  system  ;  and  it  is  the  same  now  as  then. 
It  was  also  urged,  that  the  continental  powers  were  relaxing,  which 
proved  to  be  equally  true  as  what  was  alleged  of  Great  Britain. 
Russia,  it  seems,  tried  the  relaxing  policy  for  a  short  season,  but 
soon  got  sick  of  it;  and  Mr.  Clay  quotes  the  following  remarkable 
passages,  put  forth  in  1822,  by  Count  Nesselrode,  Russian  prime 
minister,  as  the  result  of  their  experience  : — 

"  '  To  produce  happy  effects,  the  principles  of  commercial  free- 
dom must  be  generally  adopted.  The  state  which  adopts,  while 
others  reject  them,  must  condemn  its  own  industry  and  commerce, 
to  pay  a  ruinous  tribute  to  those  of  other  nations. 

"'From  a  circulation  exempt  from  restraint,  and  the  facility 
afforded  by  reciprocal  exchanges,  almost  all  the  governments  at 
first  resolved  to  seek  the  means  of  repairing  the  evil  which  Europe 
had  been  doomed  to  suffer:  but  experience,  and  more  correct  cal- 
culations, because  they  were  made  from  certain  data,  and  upon  the 
results  already  known  of  the  peace  that  had  just  taken  place,  forced 
them  soon  to  adhere  to  the  prohibitory  system. 

"'England  preserved  hers.  Austria  remained  faithful  to  the 
rule  she  had  laid  down,  to  guard  herself  against  the  rivalship  of 
foreign  industry.  France,  with  the  same  views,  adopted  the  most 
rigorous  measures  of  precaution.  And  Prussia  published  a  new 
tariff  in  October  last,  which  proves  that  she  found  it  impossible 
not  to  follow  the  example  of  the  rest  of  Europe. 


THE    PilOTECTIVE    POLICY.  171 

"  '  In  proportion  as  the  prohibitory  system  is  extended  and  ren- 
dered perfect  in  other  countries,  that  state  which  pursues  the  con- 
trary system,  makes,  from  day  to  day,  sacrifices  more  extensive 
*and  more  considerable.  *         *  *  It  offers  a  continual 

encouragement  to  the  manufactures  of  other  countries,  and  its  own 
manufactures  perish  in  the  struggle  which  they  are,  as  yet,  unable 
to  maintain. 

"  It  is  with  the  most  lively  feelings  of  regret  we  acknowledge  it 
is  our  own  proper  experience  which  enables  us  to  trace  this  pic- 
ture. The  evils  which  it  details  have  been  realized  in  Russia  and 
Poland,  since  the  conclusion  of  the  act  of  the  seventh  and  nine- 
teenth of  December,  1818.  Agriculture  ivithout  a  market,  indus- 
tri/  ivithout  protection,  languish  and  decline.  Specie  is  exported, 
and  the  most  solid  commercial  houses  are  shaken.  The  public 
prosperity  would  soon  feel  the  wound  inflicted  on  private  fortunes, 
if  new  regulations  did  not  promptly  change  the  actual  state  of 
affairs. 

"  '  Events  have  proved,  that  our  agriculture  and  our  commerce, 
as  well  as  our  manufacturing  industry,  are  not  only  paralyzed, 
but  brought  to  the  brink  of  ruin.''  " 

The  thousand-times-repeated  charge  of  the  tendencies  of  a  man- 
ufacturing system  to  create  an  aristocracy,  was  dissolved  by  one 
slight  touch  of  the  wand  of  Mr.  Clay,  and  driven  back  to  the 
shades  whence  it  so  often  emerges. 

The  following  brilliant  introduction  by  Mr.  Clay,  of  a  brilliant 
actor  on  the  theatre  of  the  world,  studded  by  a  preface  of  histori- 
cal gems  as  a  vestibule  of  access,  is  not  less  worthy  of  a  place 
here,  than  those  condensed  and  sage  remarks  on  the  protective 
policy,  reported  from  the  lips  of  the  exiled  hero  : — 

"  The  principle  of  the  system  under  consideration,  has  the  sanc- 
tion of  some  of  the  best  and  wisest  men,  in  all  ages,  in  foreign  coun- 
tries as  well  as  in  our  own — of  the  Edwardses,  of  Henry  the  Great, 
of  Elizabeth,  of  the  Colberts,  abroad  ;  of  our  Franklin,  Jefferson, 
Madison,  Hamilton,  at  home.  But  it  comes  recommended  to  us 
by  a  higher  authority  than  any  of  these,  illustrious  as  they  unques- 
tionably are — by  the  master-spirit  of  the  age — that  extraordinary 
man,  who  has  thrown  the  Alexanders  and  the  Caesars  infinitely 
further  behind  him  than  they  stood  in  advance  of  the  most  eminent 
of  their  predecessors — that  singular  man,  who,  whether  he  was 
seated  on  his  imperial  throne,  deciding  the  fate  of  nations  and 
allotting  kingdoms  to  the  members  of  his  family,  with  the  same  com- 
posure, if  not  with  the  same  affection,  as  that  with  which  a  Virginia 
father  divides  his  plantations  among  his  children,  or  on  the  miser- 
able rock  of  St.  Helena,  to  which  he  was  condemned  by  the  cru- 
elty and  the  injustice  of  his  unworthy  victors,  is   equally  an  object 


172  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

of  the  most  intense  admiration.  He  appears  to  have  comprehended, 
with  the  rapidity  of  intuition,  the  true  interests  of  a  state,  and  to 
have  been  able,  by  the  turn  of  a  single  expression,  to  develop  the 
secret  springs  of  the  policy  of  cabinets.  We  find  that  Las  Case^ 
reports  him  to  have  said  : — 

"  '  He  opposed  the  principles  of  economists,  which  he  said 
were  correct  in  theory,  though  erroneous  in  their  application. 
The  political  constitution  of  different  states,  continued  he,  must 
render  these  principles  defective;  local  circiunstances  continually 
call  for  deviations  from  their  uniformity.  Duties,  he  said,  which 
were  so  severely  condemned  by  political  economists,  should  not, 
it  is  true,  be  an  object  lo  the  treasury  ;  they  should  be  the  guar- 
anty and  protection  of  a  nation,  and  should  correspond  with  the 
nature  and  the  objects  of  its  trade.  Holland,  which  is  destitute 
of  productions  and  manufactures,  and  which  has  a  trade  only  of 
transit  and  commission,  should  be  fi'ee  of  all  fetters  and  barriers. 
France,  on  the  contrary,  which  is  rich  in  every  sort  of  production 
and  manufactures,  should  incessantly  guard  against  the  importa- 
tions of  a  rival,  who  might  still  continue  superior  to  her,  and  also 
against  the  cupidity,  egotism,  and  indifference,  of  mere  brokers. 

"  '1  have  not  fallen  into  the  error  of  modern  systematizers,' 
said  the  emperor,  '  who  imagine  that  all  the  wisdom  of  nations  is 
centred  in  themselves.  Experience  is  the  true  wisdom  of  nations. 
And  what  does  all  the  reasoning  of  economists  amount  to  '?  They 
incessantly  extol  the  prosperity  of  England,  and  hold  her  up  as 
our  model ;  but  the  customhouse  system  is  more  burdensome  and 
arbitrary  in  England  than  in  any  other  country.  They  also  con- 
demn prohibitions  ;  yet  it  was  England  set  the  example  of  prohi- 
bitions ;  and  they  are  in  fact  necessary  with  regard  to  certain 
objects.  Duties  can  not  adequately  supply  the  place  of  prohi- 
bitions ;  there  will  always  be  found  means  to  defeat  the  object  of 
the  legislator.  In  France  we  are  still  very  far  behind  on  these 
delicate  points,  which  are  still  unperceived  or  ill  understood  by 
the  mass  of  society.  Yet,  what  advancement  have  we  not  made  ; 
what  correctness  of  ideas  has  been  introduced  by  my  gradual  clas- 
sification of  agriculture,  industry,  and  trade — objects  so  distinct  in 
themselves,  and  which  present  so  great  and  positive  a  graduation. 

"  '  First:   Agricullure — the  soul,  the  first  basis,  of  the  empire. 

"  '  Second  :  Industry — the  comfort  and  happiness  of  the  popu- 
lation. 

"  '  Third  :  Foreign  trade — the  superabundance,  the  proper  ap- 
plication, of  the  surplus  of  agriculture  and  industry. 

"'Agriculture  was  continually  improving  during  the  whole 
course  of  the  revolution.  Foreii^ners  thouoht  it  ruined  in  France. 
In  1814,  however,  the  English  were  compelled  to  admit  that  we 
had  little  or  nothing  to  learn  from  them. 

"  '  Industry  or  manufactures,  and  internal  trade,  made  immense 


THK    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  17;! 

progress  during  my  reign.  The  application  of  chymistry  to  the 
manufactures,  caused  them  to  advance  with  giant  strides.  I  gave 
an  impulse,  the  effect  of  which,  extended  throughout  Europe. 

"  '  Foreign  trade,  which,  in  its  results,  is  infinitely  inferior  to 
agriculture,  was  an  object  of  subordinate  importance  in  my  mind. 
Foreign  trade  is  made  for  agriculture  and  home  industry,  and  not 
the  two  latter  for  the  former.  The  interests  of  these  three  funda- 
mental cases  are  diverging  and  frequently  conflicting.  1  always 
promoted  them  in  their  natural  gradation,  but  I  could  not  and 
ought  ifot  to  have  ranked  them  all  on  an  equality.  Time  will 
unfold  what  I  have  done,  the  national  resources  which  I  created, 
and  the  emancipation  from  the  English  which  I  brought  about. 
We  have  now  the  secret  of  the  commercial  treaty  of  1783.  France 
still  exclaims  against  its  author ;  but  the  English  demanded  it  on 
pain  of  resuming  the  war.  They  wished  to  do  the  same  after  the 
treaty  of  Amiens,  but  I  was  then  all-pow^erful ;  I  was  a  hundred 
cubits  high.  I  replied,  that  if  they  were  in  possession  of  the 
heights  of  Montmartre,  I  would  still  refuse  to  sign  the  treaty. 
These  words  were  echoed  through  Europe. 

"  '  The  English  will  now  impose  some  such  treaty  on  France, 
at  least,  if  popular  clamor  and  the  opposition  of  the  mass  of  the 
nation,  do  not  force  them  to  draw  back.  This  thraldom  would  be 
an  additional  disgrace  in  the  eyes  of  that  nation,  which  is  now 
beginning  to  acquire  a  just  perception  of  her  own  interests. 

"  '  When  I  came  to  the  liead  of  the  government,  the  American 
ships,  which  were  permitted  to  enter  our  ports  on  the  score  of 
their  neutrality,  brought  us  raw  materials,  and  had  the  impudence 
to  sail  from  France  without  freight,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  in 
cargoes  of  English  goods  in  London.  They,  moreover,  had  the 
insolence  to  make  their  payments,  when  they  had  any  to  make,  by 
giving  bills  on  persons  in  London.  Hence  the  vast  profits  reaped 
by  the  English  manufacturers  and  brokers,  entirely  to  our  preju- 
dice. I  made  a  law  that  no  American  should  import  goods  to  any 
amount,  without  immediately  exporting  their  exact  equivalent.  A 
loud  outcry  was  raised  against  this  :  it  was  said  that  I  had  ruined 
trade.  But  what  was  the  consequence?  Notwithstanding  the 
closing  of  my  ports,  and  in  spite  of  the  English,  who  ruled  the 
seas,  the  Americans  returned  and  submitted  to  my  regulations. 
What  mijrht  I  not  have  done  under  more  favorable  circum- 
stances  ? 

"  '  Thus  I  naturalized  in  France  the  manufacture  of  cotton, 
which  includes — 

"  '  First,  sptin  cotton.  We  did  not  previouly  spin  it  ourselves ; 
the  English  supplied  us  with  it,  as  a  sort  of  favor. 

"  '  Secondly,  the  web.  We  did  not  yet  make  it ;  it  came  to  us 
from  abroad. 

"  ♦  Thirdly,  tlie  'printing.    This  was  the  only  part  of  the  manufac- 


174  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

ture  that  we  performed  ourselves.  I  wished  to  naturalize  the  first 
two  branches ;  and  I  proposed  to  the  council  of  state,  that  their 
importation  should  be  prohibited.  This  excited  great  alarm.  I 
sent  for  Oberkamp,  and  I  conversed  with  him  a  long  time.  I 
learned  from  him,  that  this  prohibition  would  doubdess  produce  a 
s'lock,  but  that,  after  a  year  or  two  of  perseverance,  it  would  prove 
a  ti'nmph,  whence  we  should  derive  immense  advantages.  Then 
I  issued  my  decree  in  spite  of  all ;  this  was  a  true  piece  of  states- 
manship. 

"  '  I  at  first  confined  myself  merely  to  prohibiting  the  web  ; 
then  I  extended  the  prohibition  to  spun  cotton  ;  and  we  now  pos- 
sess, within  ourselves,  the  three  branches  of  the  cotton  manufac- 
ture, to  the  great  benefit  of  our  population,  and  the  injury  and 
regret  of  the  English  ;  which  proves  that,  in  civil  government,  as 
well  as  in  war,  decision  of  character  is  often  indispensable  to  suc- 
cess.' 

"  I  will  trouble  the  committee  [said  Mr.  Clay]  with  only  one 
otiier  quotation,  which  I  shall  make  from  Lowe  ;  and  from  hearing 
which,  the  committee  must  share  with  me  in  the  mortification 
which  T  felt  on  perusing  it.  That  author  says  :  '  It  is  now  above 
forty  years  since  the  United  States  of  America  were  definitely 
separated  from  us,  and  since,  their  situation  has  afforded  a  proof 
that  the  benefit  of  mercantile  intercourse  may  be  retained,  in  all  its 
extent,  without  the  care  of  governing,  or  the  expense  of  defend- 
ing, these  once-regretted  provinces.'  Is  there  not  too  much  truth 
in  this  observation  ?  By  adhering  to  the  foreign  policy,  which  I 
have  been  discussing,  do  we  not  remain  essentially  British,  in 
everything  but  the  form  of  our  government  ?  Are  not  our  inter- 
ests, our  industry,  our  commerce,  so  modified  as  to  swell  British 
pride,  and  to  increase  British  power "?" 

The  above  remark,  cited  by  Mr.  Clay  from  Lowe,  a  British 
authority,  discloses  a  grave  and  momentous  truth,  that  is  indeed 
humiliating  to  an  American  citizen.  So  feeble  was  the  protection 
of  American  industry  previous  to  1824,  that  the  advantages  which 
accrued  to  Great  Britain  from  her  trade  with  the  United  States, 
were  regarded  by  British  statesmen  and  economists  as  greater 
than  if  the  colonies  had  never  severed,  but  retained  their  connexion 
with  the  crown  !  The  American  revolution  and  its  results  were 
regretted  by  the  British  government  and  people.  They  are  now 
no  longer  regretted.  And  why?  Because  they  are  saved  the  ex- 
pense of  government,  and  still  have  the  market  on  terms  as  favora- 
ble as  if  they  had  the  entire  control  !  They  could  not  legislate 
better  for  themselves,  than  the  Americans  have  done  !  They  have 
discovered  it,  they  avow  it,  they  boast  of  it !     Such  was  the  actual 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  175 

State  of  things  down  to  1S24 — embracing  nearly  fifty  years  from 
the  declaration  of  independence.  From  the  peace  of  1783,  to  the 
adoption  of  the  constitution  in  17S9,  it  was  much  better  for  Great 
Britain  to  have  the  United  States  independent  of  her  politically,  as 
she  was  able,  in  the  absence  of  a  protective  system  under  the  con- 
federated states,  to  make  them  entirely  dependent  upon  her  com- 
mercially. It  was  not  her  concern,  that  the  United  States  thus 
consented  to  be  ruined,  and  again  enslaved.  They  were  getting 
deeper  and  deeper  in  debt,  and  would  soon  have  lost  their  political 
standing,  if  they  had  not  adopted  the  new  form  of  government  un- 
der the  constitution,  to  save  themselves — the  professed  and  main 
object  of  which  was  to  establish  a  protective  system,  and  rescue 
the  country.  But  this  was  very  imperfectly  done,  and  still  left  to 
Great  Britain  and  other  foreign  powers  the  greatest  benefit.  The 
European  wars  gave  some  chances  to  the  United  States,  but  no 
protection  to  home  industry.  And  the  pursuit  of  these  chances 
brought  them  into  a  collision  with  the  belligerents,  and  finally  into 
a  war  with  Great  Britain,  inducing  with  it  a  protracted  period  of 
suffering  and  sacrifice,  ending  with  a  national  debt  of  one  hundred 
and  sixty-eight  millions  !  The  war  of  1812  was  itself  a  protection 
to  home  industry,  but  purchased  with  the  expenses  and  hazards 
of  the  contest.  Peace  came,  but  no  protection.  The  nation  was 
still  in  the  power  of  Great  Britain  and  of  other  nations.  The  tariff 
of  ISIG  came  late,  and  when  it  did  come,  was  inadequate.  The 
tariff  bill  of  1820  failed,  in  the  midst  of  great  national  distress  ari- 
sing from  the  want  of  it.  The  nation  was  a  victim  of  free  trade. 
The  tariff  of  1824  brought  relief  and  prosperity,  which  continued 
till  the  Jackson  regime  broke  it  all  down  again. 

During  the  whole  history  of  the  country,  therefore,  down  to  1842, 
with  only  one  breathing  spell  for  a  few  years  subsequent  to  1824, 
the  commercial  connexions  of  Great  Britain  with  the  United  States, 
excepting  the  brief  period  of  the  war,  have  been  more  advantageous 
to  her,  and  more  ruinous  to  them,  than  if  she  had  retained  them  as 
dependent  colonies.  Compare  the  facts  stated  on  pages  169, 
191,  and  192,  of  this  volume,  with  Lowe's  statement  as  above. 
There  never  has  been  a  time,  since  the  establishment  of  independ- 
ence, when  the  United  States  were  not  in  debt  to  Great  Britain, 
and  the  debt  was  never  so  great  as  at  this  moment.  But  this  could 
never  be  under  a  fair  and  equal  commercial  system. 

The  tariff  bill  of  1824  became  a  law  by  a  vote  of  107  to  102  in 
the  house,  and  25  to  21  in  the  senate. 


176  THE     PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE     PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

The  Opening  of  a  New  Era. — Control  of  Moral  Causes  over  the  Destiny  of  Na- 
tions.— General  Jackson's  Jealousy  of  Mr.  Clay. — The  Edect  of  this  Jealousy 
on  the  Protective  Policy. — Nations  Foot-Balls  to  Kings. — First  Demonstration 
of  an  Attack  on  the  Protective  Policy. — Mr.  Clay  comes  to  the  Rescue. — Pro- 
poses a  Resolution  in  the  Senate  for  the  Reduction  of  Duties  on  Unprotected 
Articles. — Who  responsible  for  the  Tariff  of  1828. — Parliamentary  Advantage 
of  Mr.  Clay's  Resolution. — Notice  of  his  Speech  upon  it. — His  Reply  to  Mr. 
Ilaynes,  of  South  Carolina. — Two  Great  Cycles  of  National  Poverty  and  Wealth. 
— One  of  the  Greatest  Efl'orts  of  Mr.  Clay  in  defence  of  the  Protective  Policy. 

Notwithstanding  the  truly  astonishing  resuUs  of  the  tariff  of 
JS24,  in  restoring  the  prosperity  of  the  country,  replenishing  the 
national  treasury,  and  enabling  the  governinent  rapidly  to  liquidate 
the  public  debt,  diffusing  everywhere  private  happiness,  along 
with  private  thrift,  hostility  to  the  protective  policy,  seemed  rather 
to  augment  than  abate,  and  the  astounding  doctrine  of  nullification 
began  to  open  its  demonstrations  on  the  public  mind.  Though 
President  Jackson,  by  reason  of  a  private  feud,  was  by  no  means 
friendly  to  the  great  southern  leader  of  nullification,  his  jealousy 
of  the  father  of  the  American  system  was  not  less  productive  of  a 
personal  aversion  in  that  quarter.  He  knew  well  by  what  means 
he  had  supplanted  his  hated  rival,  and  what  means  were  necessary 
to  maintain  his  ascendency.  Having  succeeded,  as  developed  in 
a  former  part  of  this  work,  in  accumulating  and  concentrating  pub- 
lic opprobrium,  to  a  great  extent,  on  the  head  of  Mr.  Clay,  for  a 
falsely-alleged  attempt  at  bargain  and  corruption,  in  an  official  sta- 
tion, for  other  official  honors,  the  glory  which  Mr.  Clay  was  rapidly 
acquiring  for  the  success  of  the  protective  policy,  may,  perhaps, 
without  presumption,  be  supposed  a  sufficient  motive  to  a  mind 
that  had  done  a  former  injustice,  of  such  a  flagrant  character — 
and  for  the  same  reasons  still  existing  in  all  their  force,  and  even 
with  greater  energy — to  endeavor  to  pluck  these  clustering  plumes 
from  the  cap  of  his  opponent.     It  is  indeed  not  a  very  bright  side 


! 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  177 

of  the  destiny  of  states  and  nations,  to  be  obliged  to  observe  that 
they  are  in  such  ways  hablc  to  be  made  the  sport  of  the  bad  pas- 
sions of  prominent  and  influential  individuals — that  nations  are 
footballs  to  kings,  and  that  this  class  of  persons  is  not  confined 
to  the  denomination  composed  of  the  alphabetical  elements — 
K — I — N — G — s  ;  but  may  be  found  under  the  various  names  of 
tribunes  of  the  people,  protectors  of  commonwealths,  first-con- 
suls, and  PRESIDENTS  of  republics.  But  the  true  philosophy  of 
history,  in  its  most  important,  and  sometimes  momentous,  epochs, 
can  never  be  exposed,  independent  of  the  consideration  of  moral 
CAUSES.  These  are  often  the  most  influential,  and  most  potent. 
There  may,  and  doubtless  will  be  a  difference  of  opinion,  in  the 
passing,  though  not  probably  in  a  future  age,  in  a  case  like  that 
now  under  consideration,  and  each  one  will  be  at  liberty  to  have 
his  own.  But  such  a  remarkable  state  of  things,  the  remarkable 
manner  in  which  it  was  treated,  and  the  remarkable  results  which 
were  forced  out  of  it,  can  not  escape  the  scrutiny  and  the  judg- 
ment of  mankind  ;  and  the  rules  of  judgment  will  be  those  which 
are  usually  applied  to  men  under  given  influences. 

There  are  the  facts  :  a  nation  rescued  from  a  long  career  of 
adversity,  and  established  in  an  unexampled  course  of  prosperity, 
by  a  system  of  measures  chiefly  devised  by  one  mind,  and  put  in 
operation  chiefly  by  the  influence  of  the  same  individual.  As  it 
can  not  be  concealed,  he  will  of  course  have  the  credit  of  it ;  and 
where  will  the  gratitude  of  the  nation,  so  benefited,  find  scope  to 
express  itself,  in  honoring  such  a  benefactor?  Nothing  is  plainer: 
That  policy  must  be  blasted,  or  its  author  will  be  crowned  with 
unfading  laurels — and  that  too  early  for  those  who  have  long  been, 
not  unsuccessfully,  engaged  in  supplanting  him,  and  who  are  only 
half-way  advanced,  in  their  victorious  career,  to  his  complete  sub- 
jection, and  to  their  own  uncontrolled  supremacy  in  the  state. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  motives — every  man  will  judge 
for  himself — it  is  certain,  that  General  Jackson  had  scarcely  warmed 
the  seat  of  chief  magistrate  of  the  republic,  before  strong  and  de- 
cided symptoms  were  manifested  in  his  own  will,  and  in  the  coun- 
sels by  which  he  was  surrounded,  to  break  down  that  beneficent 
system  of  policy,  for  the  establishment  of  which  Mr.  Clay  had 
consecrated  his  life,  and  bestowed,  without  remission  his  untiring 
energies,  in  which  he  was  successful,  and  which  had  now  begun 
to  shower,  over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land,  its  manifold 
blessings. 

Vol.  II.— is 


^78  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

At  the  opening  of  the  twenty-second  Congress,  December, 
1831,  the  annual  report  of  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  clearly 
foreshadowed  a  coining  storm— a  new  and  great  batde  for  and 
against  the  protective  policy.  The  very  success  of  the  system 
w^'as  made  the  ground  of  its  overthrow.  It  was  no  longer  neces- 
sary for  the  public  treasury.  It  had  made  the  people  prosperous 
and  rich  ;  it  had  paid  the  debts  of  the  nation  ;  and  therefore,  it 
was  now  proposed  to  dispense  with  it ! 

Alarmed  at  these  unequivocal  symptoms,  advised  by  past  events 
of  the  inexorable  will  from  whose  promptings  they  emanated,  not 
ignorant  of  the  daring  and  reckless  purposes  which  were  gradually 
being  developed  in  the  same  quarter,  and  aware  of  the  irresistible 
power  which  from  that  point  swayed  the  popular  mind,  Mr.  Clay 
took  up  his  position  in  the  senate  of  the  United  States,  and  bur- 
nished up  his  armor  anew  for  the  approaching  contest — a  contest 
which  never  ended  till  the  establishment  of  the  tariff  of  1 S42 — 
which,  indeed,  seems  not  to  have  ended  even  with  that. 

Anticipating  the  movements  of  the  foe,  and  to  gain  all  possible 
advantage  by  instituting  preventive  action,  at  an  early  period  of 
the  first  session  of  the  twenty-second  Congress,  Mr.  Clay  moved 
the  following  resolution  : — 

"  Resolved,  that  the  existing  duties  upon  articles  imported  from 
foreign  countries,  and  not  coming  into  competition  with  similar  ar- 
ticles made  or  produced  within  the  United  States,  ought  to  be 
forthwith  abolished,  except  the  duties  upon  wines  and  silks,  and 
that  those  ought  to  be  reduced.  And  that  the  committee  on 
finance  be  instructed  to  report  a  bill  accordingly." 

It  should  be  recollected,  that  Mr.  Clay,  being  secretary  of  state 
at  the  time,  had  no  hand  as  a  member  of  Congress,  in  the  tariff 
of  1828,  which  has  always  been  represented  by  the  opponents  of 
the  protective  policy,  as  a  very  obnoxious  measure,  and  was  called 
the  black  tariff.  The  most  obnoxious  features  were  introduced  by 
the  opponents  of  the  bill,  for  the  purpose  of  defeating  it,  in  which 
Mr.  Van  Buren  and  Mr.  Wright,  who  were  both  from  New 
York,  were  especially  influential.  But  they  were  disappointed, 
and  the  bill  notwithstanding  passed,  so  that  the  tariff  of  1828  was 
in  some  particulars  higher  than  that  of  1824,  and  did  not  meet 
with  the  approbation  of  Mr.  Clay. 

As  the  public  debt  was  rapidly  disappearing,  and  about  to  be 
entirely  paid  off,  the  time  had  come  when  the  tariff  might  be 
reduced,  and  still  produce  a  revenue  adequate  to  the  support  of 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  179 

government.  But  the  question  was,  whether  its  protective  features 
sliould  be  invaded  ;  or  whether  the  duties  should  be  removed  from 
articles  which  required  no  protection  ?  The  object  of  Mr.  Clay's 
resolution,  as  seen,  was  to  preserve  the  protective  policy  ;  whereas 
his  opponents  desired  to  reduce  that  branch  of  the  tariff  also,  and 
more  especially.  Inasmuch  as  protection  was  popular,  the  sea- 
sonable introduction  of  this  resolution  was  occupying  strong 
ground,  and  it  was  much  more  difficult  for  Mr.  Clay's  opponents, 
without  hazard,  to  remove  it  out  of  the  way,  than  it  would  have 
been  to  march  directly  to  their  object,  if  it  had  not  been  in  their 
path.  Mr.  Clay,  by  this  resolution,  had  gained  a  decided  parlia- 
mentary advantage.  It  came  up  for  consideration  on  the  11th  of 
January,  1832,  when  it  was  expected  that  he  would  explain  and 
advocate  his  own  resolution,  and  the  senate  galleries  and  floor 
were  crowded  to  hear  a  voice,  which  had  been  wont,  but  which 
for  six  years  had  ceased,  to  be  heard  in  the  halls  of  legislation. 
His  engagements  as  secretary  of  state  had  occupied  him  four 
years  ;  his  preference  of  private  life  had  kept  him  at  Ashland  two 
years  more  ;  but  he  was  persuaded,  by  the  state  of  the  country, 
and  the  impending  perils  of  the  protective  policy,  though  with 
reluctance,  to  return  to  the  former  field  of  his  labors.  His  remarks 
on  this  occasion  were  opened  as  follows : — 

"  I  have  a  few  observations,  Mr.  President,  and  only  a  (ew,  to 
submit  to  the  senate,  on  the  measure  now  before  you,  in  doing 
which  I  have  to  ask  all  your  indulgence.  I  am  getting  old  :  I  feel 
but  too  sensibly  and  unaffectedly  the  effects  of  approaching  age, 
and  I  have  been  for  some  years  very  little  in  the  habit  of  address- 
ing deliberative  assembhes.  I  am  told  that  I  have  been  the  cause 
— the  most  unwilling  cause,  if  I  have  been — of  exciting  expecta- 
tions, the  evidence  of  which  is  around  us.  I  regret  it;  for,  how- 
ever the  subject  on  which  I  am  to  speak,  in  other  hands,  might  be 
treated,  to  gratify  or  to  reward  the  presence  and  attention  now 
given,  in  mine,  I  have  nothing  but  a  plain,  unvarnished,  and  unam- 
bitious exposition  to  make. 

"  It  forms  no  part  of  my  present  purpose  to  enter  into  a  con- 
sideration of  the  estahlished  j^olici/  of  iirotcctwn.  Strong  in  the 
convictions  and  deeply  seated  in  the  aflections  of  a  large  majority 
of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  it  stands  self-vindicated  in  the 
general  prosperity,  in  the  rich  fruits  which  it  has  scattered  over 
the  land,  in  the  experience  of  all  prosperous  and  powerful  nations, 
present  and  past,  and  now  in  that  of  our  own.  Nor  do  I  think  it 
necessary  to  discuss  that  policy  on  this  resolution.  Other  gentle- 
men may  think  differently,  and  may  choose  to  argue  and  assail  it. 


180  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

If  they  do,  I  have  no  doubt  that  in  all  parts  of  the  senate,  mem- 
bers more  competent  than  I  am,  will  be  ready  to  support  and 
defend  it.  My  object  now  is  to  limit  myself  to  a  presentation  of 
certain  views  and  principles  connected  with  the  present  financial 
condition  of  the  country." 

Mr.  Clay  did  confine  himself  to  the  limits  here  prescribed, 
embracing  in  his  view  the  history  and  happy  effects  of  the  protect- 
ive policy,  the  unwelcome  suggestions  and  proposals  of  the  exec- 
utive, through  the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  throwing  out  some 
hints  on  the  internal  improvement  and  public-land  policy,  noticing 
briefly  the  frauds  on  the  revenue  committed  by  foreign  factors, 
'  proposing  a  home  valuation,  and  after  explaining  and  advocating 
his  resolution,  concluded  an  unimpassioned  matter-of-fact  speech, 
with  the  following  more  sentimental  words  : — 

"  I  came  here,  sir,  in  a  spirit  of  warm  attachment  to  all  parts 
of  our  beloved  country,  with  a  lively  solicitude  to  restore  and  pre- 
serve its  harmony,  and  with  a  firm  determination  to  pour  oil  and 
balm  into  existing  wounds,  rather  than  further  to  lacerate  them. 
For  the  truth  and  sincerity  of  these  declarations,  I  appeal  to  Him 
whom  none  can  deceive.  I  expected  to  be  met  by  corresponding 
dispositions,  and  hoped  that  our  deliberations,  guided  by  fraternal 
sentiments  and  feelings,  would  terminate  in  diffusing  contentment 
and  satisfaction  throughout  the  land.  And  that  such  may  be  the 
spirit  presiding  over  them,  and  such  their  issue,  I  yet  most  fer- 
vently hope." 

But  this  "firm  determination  to  pour  oil  and  balm  into  existing 
wounds,"  was  of  no  use.  The  war  on  the  protective  policy  was 
resolved  on,  not  less  by  the  president  and  his  counsellors — if 
counsellors  he  had — than  by  the  nullifiers  of  the  south  ;  and  the 
resolution  offered  by  Mr.  Clay,  was  made  the  occasion  of  the  vigor- 
ous, not  to  say,  violent  contest,  which  occupied  so  much  of  this 
session,  and  which  resulted  in  the  passage  of  the  tariff  law  of 
1832,  on  the  principle  of  Mr.  Clay's  resolution. 

Mr.  Clay,  who,  apparently  from  the  quietness  of  his  manner  in  the 
speech  above  noticed,  seemed  not  to  have  anticipated  very  extended 
or  very  earnest  debates,  was  at  last  roused,  in  replying  chiefly  to 
General  Hayne,  of  South  Carolina,  to  one  of  the  greatest,  most 
brilliant,  and  most  effective  efforts  of  his  life,  continued  for  three 
days,  the  2d,  3d,  and  6th  of  February,  1832. 

At  this  point  of  the  history,  and  at  this  juncture  of  the  affairs, 
of  the  United  States,  Mr.  Clay  was  well  entitled  to  suppose,  that 
be  had  fairly  fought  and  won  the  battle  for  the  protective  policy, 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICV.  181 

and  that  it  would  never  again  be  disturbed.  In  ordinary  circum- 
stances, and  but  for  extraordinary  causes,  this  conclusion  would 
have  been  realized.  How  could  a  nation  be  blinded  to  such  facts  ? 
It  had  been  in  distress  ;  it  was  relieved  ;  and  everybody  knew  the 
cause.  Nobody  can  understand  the  great  political  game  in  hand 
at  that  time,  without  an  eye  on  the  moral  causes  which  influ- 
enced and  controlled  results — without  looking  steadily  at  the  facts, 
first,  that  General  Jackson  had  gained  his  ascendency,  and  ob- 
tained power,  by  injustice  to  Mr.  Clay ;  and  next,  that,  to  retain 
this  position,  it  was  necessary  to  obscure  Mr.  Clay's  steadily-grow- 
ing fame,  as  it  beamed  out  from  the  healthful  and  salutary  opera- 
tion of  the  American  system,  by  destroying  the  system  itself! 
That  being  gone,  with  all  its  blessings,  there  would  be  nobody  to 
thank  for  it,  because  nobody  could  see  a  thing  that  was  not.  Or, 
if  it  should  only  be  partially  destroyed — marred,  fettered,  embar- 
rassed, so  as  to  fail  of  its  legitimate  and  best  results,  questions 
might  then  be  raised  as  to  its  merits,  and  a  controversy  might  be 
maintained  that  should  put  the  public  mind  in  doubt,  which  party 
was  right.  So,  in  fact,  was  this  system  impaired  by  the  onsets  of 
power  made  at  that  time,  and  sustained  for  many  years,  that  it  was 
thrown  more  and  more  into  the  dark,  till  at  last  it  was  well  nigh 
strano-led.  It  obtained  a  new  lease  of  life  and  breath — no  one, 
perhaps,  can  tell  how  long — in  1842. 

But  the  man  who,  by  a  life  of  devotion  to  the  cause,  had  so 
steadily  fought,  and  so  gloriously  won,  this  great  battle,  in  the  so- 
cial and  political  conflicts  of  the  country,  was,  by  the  events  al- 
ready recognised,  doomed  to  fight  it  all  over  again,  and  to  bequeath 
the  rights  of  conquest  and  the  rewards  of  triumph,  to  those  who 
should  come  after  him,  if  luckily  victory  should  ever  again  be  ac- 
quired. To  behold  him  taking  up  his  position,  in  the  senate  of 
the  United  States,  in  1832,  with  this  prospect  before  him,  and 
under  these  recollections  of  the  past,  and  opening  by  such  woi'ds 
as  these:  "I  feel  but  too  sensibly  and  unaffectedly  the  effects  of 
approaching  age" — after  having  been  forced  from  his  retreat  at 
Ashland,  by  the  call  of  his  friends  and  his  country,  for  this  express 
purpose — is  a  kind  of  spectacle  that  rarely  occurs  in  the  progress 
of  human  society. 

There  he  stands,  and  he  begins  on  this  wise : — 

**  1  stand  here  as  the  humble  but  zealous  advocate,  not  of  the 
interests  of  one  state,  or  seven  states  only,  but  of  the  whole  Union. 
And  never  before  have  I  felt,  jnore  intensely,  the  overpowering 


182  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

weight  of  that  share  of  responsibility  which  belongs  to  me  in  these 
deliberations.  Never  before  have  I  had  more  occasion  than  I  now 
have,  to  lament  my  want  of  those  intellectual  powers,  the  posses- 
sion of  which  might  enable  me  to  unfold  to  this  senate,  and  to 
illustrate  to  this  people,  great  truths,  intimately  connected  with  the 
lastin"-  welfare  of  my  country.  I  should,  indeed,  sink  overwhelmed 
and  subdued  beneath  the  appalling  magnitude  of  the  task  which 
lies  before  me,  if  I  did  not  feel  myself  sustained  and  fortified  by 
a  thorough  consciousness  of  the  justness  of  the  cause  which  I  have 
espoused,  and  by  a  persuasion,  I  hope  not  presumptuous,  that  it 
has  the  approbation  of  that  Providence  who  has  so  often  smiled 
upon  these  United  States. 

"  Eight  years  ago,  it  was  my  painful  duty  to  present  to  the  other 
house  of  Congress  an  unexaggerated  picture  of  the  general  dis- 
tress pervading  the  whole  land.  We  must  all  yet  remember  some 
of  its  frightful  features.  We  all  know  that  the  people  were  then 
oppressed,  and  borne  down  by  an  enormous  load  of  debt ;  that 
the  value  of  property  was  at  the  lowest  point  of  depression  ;  that 
ruinous  sales  and  sacrifices  were  everywhere  made  of  real  estate  ; 
that  stop  laws,  and  relief  laws,  and  paper  money,  were  adopted,  to 
save  the  people  from  impending  destruction  ;  that  a  deficit  in  the 
public  revenue  existed,  which  compelled  government  to  seize  upon, 
and  divert  from  its  legitimate  object,  the  appropriations  to  the  sink- 
ing fund,  to  redeem  the  national  debt;  and  that  our  commerce 
and  navigation  were  threatened  with  a  complete  paralysis.  In 
short,  sir,  if  I  were  to  select  any  term  of  seven  years  since  the  adop- 
tion of  the  present  constitution  ivhich  exhibited  a  scene  of  the  most 
wide-spread  dismay  and  desolatioii,  it  would  he  exactly  that  term 
of  seven  years  which  immediately  preceded  the  establishment  of 
the  tariff  of  1824. 

"  I  have  now  to  perform  the  more  pleasing  task  of  exhibiting  an 
imperfect  sketch  of  the  existing  state  of  the  unparalleled  prosper- 
ity of  the  country.  On  a  general  survey,  we  behold  cultivation 
extended,  the  arts  flourishing,  the  face  of  the  country  improved, 
our  people  fully  and  profitably  employed,  and  the  public  counte- 
nance exhibiting  tranquillity,  contentment,  and  happiness.  And  if 
we  descend  into  particulars,  we  have  the  agreeable  contemplation 
of  a  people  out  of  debt ;  land  rising  slowly  in  value,  but  in  a  se- 
cure and  salutary  degree  ;  a  ready  though  not  extravagant  market 
for  all  the  surplus  productions  of  our  industry  ;  innumerable  flocks 
and  herds  browsing  and  gamboling  on  ten  thousand  hills  and 
plains,  covered  with  rich  and  verdant  grasses  ;  our  cities  expanded, 
and  whole  villages  springing  up,  as  it  were,  by  enchantment ;  our 
exports  and  imports  increased  and  increasing;  our  tonnage,  foreign 
and  coastwise,  swelling  and  fully  occupied  ;  the  rivers  of  our  in- 
terior animated  by  the  perpetual  thunder  and  lightning  of  count- 
less steamboats ;  the   currency  sound   and  abundant ;  the  public 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  183 

debt  of  two  wars  nearly  redeemed  ;  and,  to  crown  all,  the  public 
treasury  overflowing,  embarrassing  Congress,  not  to  find  subjects 
of  taxation,  but  to  select  the  objects  which  shall  be  liberated  from 
the  impost.  If  the  term  of  seven  years  ivere  to  be  selected,  of  the 
greatest  prosperity  which  this  people  have  enjoyed  since  -the  estab- 
lishment of  their  present  constitution,  it  would  be  exactly  that  period 
of  seven  year's  ivhich  iinmediatcly  followed  the  passage  of  the 
tariff  of  1824. 

"  This  transformation  of  the  condition  of  the  country  from 
gloom  and  distress  to  brightness  and  prosperity,  has  been  mainly 
the  work  of  American  legislation,  fostering  American  industry,  in- 
stead of  allowing  it  to  be  controlled  by  foreign  legislation,  cherish- 
ing foreign  industry.  The  foes  of  the  American  system,  in  1S24, 
with  great  boldness  and  confidence,  predicted,  first,  the  ruin  of  the 
public  revenue,  and  the  creation  of  a  necessity  to  resort  to  direct 
taxation — the  gentleman  from  South  Carolina  [General  Hayne], 
I  believe,  thought  that  die  tariff  of  1824  would  operate  a  reduc- 
tion of  revenue  to  the  large  amount  of  eight  millions  of  dollars  ; 
secondly,  the  destruction  of  our  navigation  ;  thirdly,  the  desola- 
tion of  commercial  cities  ;  and,  fourthly,  the  augmentation  of  the 
price  of  objects  of  consumption,  and  further  decline  in  that  of  the 
articles  of  our  exports.  Every  prediction  which  they  made  has 
failed — utterly  failed.  Instead  of  the  ruin  of  the  public  revenue, 
with  which  they  then  sought  to  deter  us  from  the  adoption  of  the 
American  system,  we  are  now  threatened  with  its  subversion,  by 
the  vast  amount  of  the  public  revenue  produced  by  that  system. 
Every  branch  of  our  navigation  has  increased." 

That  it  should  be  necessary  to  defend  a  system  of  policy,  which 
had  produced  such  decidedly  beneficial,  such  magical,  such  stu- 
pendous effects  on  all  the  great  and  minor  interests  of  the  country, 
public  and  private — effects  which  everybody  knew,  everybody 
saw — is  indeed  a  just  subject  of  wonder,  and  can  only  be  account- 
ed for  by  that  unreasonable,  unnatural  hostility,  armed  with  power, 
which  was  arrayed  against  it,  for  reasons  and  feelings  personal 
in  the  breast  of  the  chief  magistrate  of  the  nation,  toward  the  au- 
thor of  this  system,  to  maintain  a  position  gained  at  the  expense 
of  this  public  benefactor ! 

It  is  possible  that  the  cotton  planter's  opposition  should  hav3 
been  the  result  of  honest  convictions  ;  for  many  have  not  even  ye^ 
discovered,  that  the  more  rapid  growth  of  the  north  in  v/ealth,  is 
owing  to  its  exemption  from  slavery  ;  that  where  all  men  work, 
all  must  thrive  ;  and  that  where  the  few  depend  on  the  involunta- 
ry labor  of  the  many,  they  must  look  for  the  causes  of  slow-paced 
thrift,  or  apparent  decline,  not  in  national  laws,  but  in  local  insti- 


184  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

tutions.  Protection  is  equally  necessary,  and  equally  beneficial, 
to  one  part  of  the  country  as  to  another,  and  that  which  makes  the 
nation  rich,  can  not  make  a  fraction  of  it  poor.  They  who  occu- 
py a  narrow  sphere,  are  liable  to  contracted  views  ;  but  he  whose 
duty  as  a  statesman,  is  to  survey  the  whole  field,  can  not  be  ex- 
cused, if  he  looks  at  only  a  part,  and  judges  from  that  part.  It 
was  not  possible  for  those  who  administered  the  government  of  the 
United  States  in  1832,  if  they  had  the  first  qualification  for  their 
position,  to  be  ignorant  of  the  prosperity  and  wealth,  which  the 
protective  policy  was  then  pouring  into  the  coffers  of  the  nation, 
and  dispensing  with  bountiful  hand  to  every  class  of  the  indus- 
trious and  frugal.  It  is  therefore  impossible  to  find  an  apology  in 
that  quarter  for  hostility  to  the  system — for  a  fixed  and  settled 
plan  to  undermine  and  destroy  it. 

One  can  not  but  feel  an  interest  in  the  position  of  Mr.  Clay  at 
that  time.  He  could  not  say  what  may  be  incumbent  on  an  histo- 
rian, in  his  exposition  of  moral  causes,  to  suggest ;  but  he  was 
obliged  to  face  the  storm,  and  confront  the  assailants  of  his  long- 
cherished  policy,  organized  in  the  government,  as  if  the  onset  had 
sprung  from  the  most  patriotic  and  praiseworthy  views.  The  op- 
position of  those  not  connected  with  the  government,  was  a  differ- 
ent thing.  It  was  fair,  and  could  not  be  judged  severely.  That 
which  emanated  from  the  federal  administration,  for  such  reasons 
as  have  been  supposed,  also  required  a  respectful  treatment.  It 
was  impossible  to  dive  into  the  heart,  and  expose  the  secret  springs 
of  this  hostility.  The  president  was  high  in  popular  favor ;  his 
will  was  law,  and  his  wishes  had  only  to  be  expressed,  to  be  exe- 
cuted. 

It  was  in  this  state  of  things,  that  Mr.  Clay  returned  to  Con- 
gress as  a  senator,  in  1831,  to  encounter  an  administration  plan  for 
the  destruction  of  the  protective  policy — not,  indeed,  by  open,  but 
insidious  action.  The  influences  brought  to  bear  from  that  quar- 
ter, were  prodigious — overwhelming.  Added  to  these  were  the 
feelings  of  the  south — an  agency  managed  on  its  own  account — 
ripening  into  the  alarming  designs  of  nullification.  It  is  only  in 
view  of  these  facts,  that  the  position  of  Mr.  Clay  at  that  time  can 
be  appreciated,  not  alone  as  one  of  anxious  concern  to  himself, 
but  as  one  of  momentous  consequence  to  the  couhtry.  . 

After  Mr.  Clay  had  opened  his  argument,  of  February  2, 1832, 
as  noticed  in  a  foregoing  extract,  he  proceeds  to  the  exhibition  of 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  185 

some  facts  in  answer  to  the  predictions  of  the  opponents  of  the 
tariff  of  1S24,  that  it  would  desolate  commercial  cities,  be  the 
ruin  of  internal  trade,  &c. 

"  I  have  in  my  hands,"  said  Mr.  Clay,  "  the  assessed  value  of 
real  estate  in  the  city  of  New  York,  from  .1817  to  1831.  This 
value  is  canvassed,  contested,  scrutinized,  and  adjudged,  by  the 
proper  sworn  authorities.  It  is,  therefore,  entitled  to  full  credence. 
During  the  first  term,  commencing  with  1817,  and  ending  in  the 
year  of  the  passage  of  the  tariff  of  1824,  the  amount  of  the  value 
of  real  estate  was,  the  first  year,  fifty-seven  millions  seven  hundred 
and  ninety-nine  thousand,  four  hundred  and  thirty-five  dollars,  and, 
after  various  fluctuations  in  the  intermediate  period,  it  setded  down 
at  fifty-two  millions  nineteen  thousand  seven  hundred  and  thirty 
dollars,  exhibiting  a  decrease,  in  seven  years,  of  five  millions  seven 
hundred  and  seventy-nine  thousand  seven  hundred  and  five  dollars. 
During  the  first  year,  of  1825,  after  the  passage  of  the  tarifl",  it 
rose,  and,  gradually  ascending  throughout  the  whole  of  the  latter 
period  of  seven  years,  it  finally,  in  ISol,  reached  the  astonishing 
height  of  ninety-five  millions  seven  hundred  and  sixteen  thousand 
four  hundred  and  eighty-five  dollars  !  Now,  if  it  be  said,  that  this 
rapid  growth  of  the  city  of  New  York  was  the  effect  o^  foreign 
commerce,  then  it  was  not  correctly  predicted,  in  1824,  that  the 
tariff  would  destroy  foreign  commerce,  and  desolate  our  commer- 
cial cities.  If,  on  the  contrary,  it  be  the  effect  of  internal  trade, 
then  internal  trade  can  not  be  justly  chargeable  with  the  evil  con- 
sequences imputed  to  it.  The  truth  is,  it  is  the  joint  effect  of  both 
principles,  the  domestic  industry  nourishing  the  foreign  trade,  and 
the  foreign  commerce  in  turn  nourishing  the  domestic  industry. 
Nowhere  more  than  in  New  York  is  the  combination  of  both  prin- 
ciples so  completely  developed.  In  the  progress  of  my  argument, 
I  will  consider  the  effect  upon  the  price  of  commodities  produced 
by  the  American  system,  and  show  that  the  very  reverse  of  the 
prediction  of  its  foes,  in  1824,  actually  happened. 

"  While  we  thus  behold  the  entire  failure  of  all  that  was  fore- 
told against  the  system,  it  is  a  subject  of  just  felicitation  to  its 
friends,  that  all  their  anticipations  of  its  benefits  have  been  fulfilled, 
or  are  in  progress  of  fulfilment." 

Speaking  of  the  variety  and  extent  of  interests  comprehended  in 
the  protective  policy,  Mr.  Clay  says  : — 

"Why,  sir,  there  is  scarcely  an  interest,  scarcely  a  vocation  in 
society,  which  is  not  embraced  by  the  beneficence  of  this  system. 

"It  comprehends  our  coasting  tonnage  and  trade,  from  which 
all  foreign  tonnage  is  absolutely  excluded. 

"  It  includes  all  our  foreign  tonnage,  with  the  inconsiderable  ex- 
ception made  by  treaties  of  reciprocity  Vv'ith  a  few  foreign  powers. 


186  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

"It  embraces  our  fisheries,  and  all  our  hardy  and  enterprising 
fishermen. 

"It  extends  to  almost  every  mechanic  art — to  tanners,  cordwain- 
ers,  tailors,  cabinet-makers,  hatters,  tinners,  brass-workers,  clock- 
makers,  coach-makers,  tallow-chandlers,  trace-makers,  rope-makers, 
cork-cutters,  tobacconists,  whip-makers,  paper-makers,  umbrella- 
makers,  glass-blowers,  stocking-weavers,  butter-makers,  saddle  and 
harness-makers,  cutlers,  brush-makers,  book-binders,  dairy-men, 
milk-farmers,  blacksmiths,  type-founders,  musical  instrument-ma- 
kers, basket-makers,  milliners,  potters,  chocolate-makers,  floor- 
cloth-makers, bonnet-makers,  hair-cloth-makers,  copper-smiths, 
pencil-makers,  bellows-makers,  pocket-book-makers,  card-makers, 
glue-makers,  mustard-makers,  lumber-sawyers,  saw-makers,  scale- 
beam-makers,  scythe-makers,  wood-saw-makers,  and  many  others. 
The  mechanics  enumerated  enjoy  a  measure  of  protection  adapted 
to  their  several  conditions,  varying  from  twenty  to  fifty  per  cent. 
The  extent  and  importance  of  some  of  these  artisans,  may  be  es- 
timated by  a  few  particulars.  The  tanners,  curriers,  boot  and 
shoe  makers,  and  other  workers  in  hides,  skins,  and  leather,  pro- 
duce an  ultimate  value  per  annum  of  forty  millions  of  dollars  ;  the 
manufacturers  of  hats  and  caps,  produce  an  annual  value  of  fifteen 
millions ;  the  cabinet-makers,  twelve  millions  ;  the  manufacturers 
of  bonnets  and  hats  for  the  female  sex,  lace,  artificial  flowers, 
combs,  and  so  forth,  seven  millions  ;  and  the  manufacturers  of  glass, 
five  millions. 

"  It  extends  to  all  lower  Louisiana,  the  delta  of  which  might  as 
well  be  submerged  again  in  the  gulf  of  Mexico,  from  which  it  has 
been  a  gradual  conquest,  as  now  to  be  deprived  of  the  protecting 
duty  upon  its  great  staple. 

"  It  affects  the  cotton-planter  himself,  and  the  tobacco-planter, 
both  of  whom  enjoy  protection. 

"  The  total  amount  of  the  capital  vested  in  sheep,  the  land  to 
sustain  them,  wool,  woollen  manufactures,  and  woollen  fabrics, 
and  the  subsistence  of  the  various  persons  directly  or  indirectly 
employed  in  the  growth  and  manufacture  of  the  article  of  wool,  is 
estimated  at  one  hundred  and  sixty-seven  millions  of  dollars,  and 
the  number  of  persons  at  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand. 

"  The  value  of  iron,  considered  as  a  raw  material,  and  of  its 
manufactures,  is  estimated  at  twenty-six  millions  of  dollars  per 
annum.  Cotton  goods,  exclusive  of  the  capital  vested  in  the  man- 
ufacture, and  of  the  cost  of  the  raw  material,  are  believed  to 
amount,  annually,  to  about  twenty  millions  of  dollars." 

Of  course,  it  will  be  observed,  that  all  these  interests  have 
greatly  enlarged,  since  1832. 

"  Such,"  says  Mr.  Clay,  "  are  some  of  the  items  of  this  vast 
system  of  protection,  which  it  is  now  proposed  to  abandon.     We 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  187 

might  well  pause  and   contempliite,   if   human   imagination   could 
conceive    the    extent    of  mischief  and   ruin    from   its    total    over- 
throw, before  we  proceed  to  the  work  of  destruction.     Its  dura- 
tion is  worthy  also  of  serious  consideration.     Not  to  go  behind  the 
constitution,  its  date  is  coeval  with  that  instrument.     It  began  on 
the  ever-memorable  fourth  day  of  July — the  fourth   day  of  July, 
1789.     The  second  act  which  stands  recorded  in  the  statute-book, 
bearing  the   illustrious  signature  of  George  Washington,  laid  the 
corner-stone   of  the  whole  system.     That  there  might  be  no  mis- 
take  about   the   matter,  it  was  then  solemnly  proclaimed   to   the 
American  people  and  to  the  world,  that  it  was  necessary  for  '  the 
encouragement  ^nd  protection  of  manufactures,'  that  duties  should 
be  laid.     It  is  in  vain  to  urge  the  small  amount  of  the  measure  of 
the  protection  then  extended.     The  great  principle  was  then  es- 
tablished by  the  fathers  of  the  constitution,  with  the  father  of  his 
country  at  their  head.     And  it  can  not  now  be  questioned,  that,  if 
the  government  had  not  then  been  new  and  the  subject  untried,  a 
greater  measure  of  protection  would  have  been  applied,  if  it  had 
been  supposed  necessary.     Shortly  after,  the  master  minds  of  Jef- 
ferson and  Hamilton  were  brought  to  act  on  this   interesting  sub- 
ject.    Taking  views  of  it  appertaining  to  the  departments  of  for- 
eign affairs  and  of  the  treasury,  which  they  respectively  filled,  they 
presented,  severally,  reports  vvhich  yet  remain  monuments  of  their 
profound  wisdom,  and  eame  to  the  same  conclusion  of  protection 
to  American  industry.     Mr.  Jefferson  argued  that  foreign  restric- 
tions, foreign  prohibitions,  and  foreign  high  duties,  ought  to  be  met 
at   home   by  American    restrictions,   American   prohibitions,   and 
American    high    duties.       Mr.    Hamilton,    surveying    the    entire 
ground,  and  looking  at  the  inherent  nature  of  the  subject,  treated 
it  with  an  ability,  which,  if  ever  equalled,  has  not  been  surpassed, 
and  earnestly  recommended  protection." 

Mr.  Clay  notices  the  transient  seductive  influences  of  the  great 
French  revolution  on  the  commercial  enterprise  of  the  country, 
while  the  United  States  realized  all  the  benefits  of  a  neutral  posi- 
tion, which,  for  a  season,  diverted  attention  from  domestic  manu- 
factures, and  checked  their  growth. 

"  Then  came  the  edicts  of  Napoleon,  and  the  British  orders  in 
council ;  and  our  embargo,  non-intercourse,  non-importation,  and 
war,  followed  in  rapid  succession.  These  national  measures, 
amounting  to  a  total  suspension,  for  the  period  of  their  duration, 
of  our  foreign  commerce,  afforded  die  most  efficacious  encourage- 
ment to  American  manufactures  ;  and  accordingly  they  everywhere 
sprung  up.  While  these  measures  of  restriction  and  this  state  of 
war  continued,  the  manufacturers  were  stimulated  in  their  enter- 
prise by  every  assurance  of  su|)port,  by  public  sentiment,  and  by 
legislative  resolves.     It  was  about  that  period  [1808]  that  South 


188  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

Carolina  bore  her  high  testimony  to  the  wisdom  of  the  policy,  in 
an  act  of  her  legislature,  the  preamble  of  which,  rfow  before  me, 

reads  : — 

"  '  Whereas,  the  establishment  and  e?icourageme?it  of  domestic 
manufactures,  is  conducive  to  the  interests  of  a  state,  by  adding 
new  incentives  to  industry,  and  as  being  the  means  of  disposing  to 
advantage  the  surplus  productions  oiihe agriculturist;  and  whefeas, 
in  the  present  unexampled  state  of  the  world,  their  establishment 
in  our  country  is  not  only  expedient,  but  politic,  in  rendering  us 
independent  of  foreign  nations.'  " 

This  surely,  was  a  remarkable  and  instructive  position  for  South 
Carolina  to  occupy,  compared  with  that  of  1S32. 

"Peace,  under  the  treaty  of  Ghent,  returned  in  1815,  but  there 
did  not  return  with  it  the  golden  days  which  preceded  the  edicts 
levelled  at  our  commerce  by  Great  Britain  and  France.  It  found 
all  Europe  tranquilly  resuming  the  arts  and  the  business  of  civil 
life.  It  found  Europe  no  longer  the  consumer  of  our  surplus,  and 
the  employer  of  our  navigation,  but  excluding,  or  heavily  burden- 
in'T,  almost  all  the  productions  of  our  agriculture,  and  our  rivals 
in  manufactures,  in  navigation,  and  in  commerce.  It  found  our 
country,  in  short,  in  a  situation  totally  different  from  all  the  past — 
new  and  untried.  It  became  necessary  to  adapt  our  laws  and  es- 
pecially our  laws  of  impost,  to  the  new  circumstances  in  which  we 
found  ourselves.  *  *  *  It  has  been  said,  that  the  tariif  of 
ISIG  was  a  measure  of  mere  revenue,  and  that  it  only  reduced  the 
war  duties  to  a  peace  standard.  It  is  true,  that  the  question  then 
was,  how  much  and  in  what  way  should  the  double  duties  of  the 
war  be  reduced?  Now,  also,  the  question  is,  on  what  articles 
shall  the  duties  be  reduced  so  as  to  subject  the  amounts  of  the  fu- 
ture revenue  to  the  wants  of  the  government  ?  Then  it  was 
deemed  an  inquiry  of  the  first  importance,  as  it  should  be  now, 
how  the  reduction  should  be  made,  so  as  to  secure  proper  encour- 
agement to  our  domestic  industry.  That  this  was  a  leading  object 
in  the  arran2:ement  of  the  tariff  of  1816,  I  well  remember,  and  it 

O  ... 

is  demonstrated  by  the  language  of  Mr.  Dallas.  He  says,  m  his 
rc})ort :  '  There  are  few,  if  any  governments,  which  do  not  regard 
the  establishment  of  domestic  manufactures  as  a  chief  object  of 
public  policy.  The  United  States  have  always  so  regarded  it.' 
The  measure  of  protection  which  he  proposed  was  not  adopted,  in 
regard  to  some  leading  articles,  and  there  was  great  difficulty  in 
ascertaining  what  it  ought  to  have  been.  But  the  ininciple  was 
then  distinctly  asserted,  and  fully  sanctioned. 

"  The  subject  of  the  American  system  was  again  brought  up  in 
1820,  by  the  bill  reported  by  the  chairman  of  the  committee  of 
manufactures,  now  a  member  of  the  bench  of  the  supreme  court 
of  the  United  States,  and  the  principle  was  successfully  maintained 


THE    PKOTECTIVE    POLICY.  189 

by  the  representatives  of  the  people ;  but  the  bill  which  they  passed 
was  defeated  in  the  senate.  It  was  revived  in  1824,  the  whole 
ground  carefully  and  deliberately  explored,  and  the  bill  then  intro- 
duced, receiving  all  the  sanctions  of  the  constitution,  became  the 
law  of  the  land.  An  amendment  of  the  system  was  j)roposed  in 
1828,  to  the  history  of  which  I  refer  with  no  agreeable  recollec- 
tions. The  bill  of  that  year,  in  some  of  its  provisions,  was  framed 
on  principles  directly  adverse  to  the  declared  wishes  of  the  fricjids 
of  the  policy  of  protection.  I  have  heard,  without  vouching  for 
the  fact,  that  it  was  so  framed,  upon  the  advice  of  a  prominent  cit- 
izen, now  abroad  [Mr.  Van  Buren],  with  the  view  of  ultimately 
defeating  the  bill,  and  with  assurances  that,  being  altogether  unac- 
ceptable to  the  friends  of  the  American  system,  the  bill  would  be 
lost.  Be  that  as  it  may,  the  most  exceptionable  features  of  the 
bill  were  stamped  upon  it,  against  the  earnest  remonstrances  of  the 
friends  of  the  system,  by  the  votes  of  southern  members,  upon  a 
principle,  I  think,  as  unsound  in  legislation  as  it  is  reprehensible 
in  ethics.  The  bill  was  passed,  notwithstanding,  it  having  been 
deemed  better  to  take  the  bad  along  with  the  good  which  it  con- 
tained, than  reject  it  altogether.  Subsequent  legislation  has  cor- 
rected the  error  then  perpetrated,  but  still  that  measure  is  vehe- 
mently denounced  by  gentlemen  who  contributed  to  make  it  what 
it  was. 

"  Thus,  sir,  has  this  great  system  of  protection  been  gradually 
built,  stone  upon  stone,  and  step  by  step,  from  the  4th  of  July, 
1789,  down  to  the  present  period.  In  every  stage  of  its  progress 
it  has  received  the  deliberate  sanction  of  Congress.  A  vast  major- 
ity of  the  people  of  the  United  States  has  approved  and  continue 
to  approve  it.  Every  chief  magistrate  of  the  United  States,  from 
Washington  to  the  present,  in  some  form  or  other,  has  given  to  it 
the  authority  of  his  name  ;  and,  however  the  opinions  of  the  exist- 
ing president  are  interpreted  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  on 
the  north  they  are  at  least  understood  to  favor  the  establishment  of 
tx  judicious  tariff." 

There  was  something  very  sarcastic  in  these  words,  "  under-' 

stood,"  "judicious." 

"  The  question,  therefore,  which  we  are  now  called  upon  to  de- 
termine, is  not,  whether  we  shall  establish  a  new  and  doubtful 
system  of  policy,  just  proposed,  and  for  the  first  time  presented  to 
our  consideration  ;  but  whether  we  shall  break  down  and  destroy  a 
long-established  system,  patienUy  and  carefully  built  up  and  sanc- 
tioned, during  a  series  of  years,  again  and  again,  by  the  nation  and 
its  highest  and  most  revered  authorities  ?  And  are  we  not  bound 
deliberately  to  consider  whether  we  can  proceed  to  this  work  of 
destruction  without  a  violation  of  the  public  faith  ?  The  people 
of  the  United  States  have  justly  supposed,  that  the  policy  of  pro- 


190  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

tecting  their  industry  against  foreign  legislation  and  foreign  indus- 
try, was  fully  settled,  not  by  a  single  act,  but  by  repeated  and  de- 
liberate acts  of  government,  performed  at  distant  and  frequent 
intervals.  In  full  confidence  that  the  policy  was  firmly  and  un- 
changeably fixed,  thousands  upon  thousands  have  invested  their 
capital,  purchased  a  vast  amount  of  real  and  other  estate,  made 
permanent  establishments,  and  accommodated  their  industry. 
Can  we  expose  to  utter  and  irretrievable  ruin  this  countless  multi- 
tude, without  justly  incurring  the  reproach  of  violating  the  national 
faith  ? 

"  When  gentlemen  have  succeeded  in  their  design  of  an  imme- 
diate or  gradual  destruction  of  the  American  system,  what  is  their 
substitute  ?  Free  trade  ?  Free  trade  !  The  call  for  free  trade  is 
as  unavailing,  as  the  cry  of  a  spoiled  child  in  its  nurse's  arms,  for 
the  moon,  or  the  stars  that  glitter  in  the  firmament  of  heaven.  It 
never  has  existed,  it  never  will  exist.  Trade  implies  at  least  two 
parties.  To  be  free,  it  should  be  fair,  equal,  and  reciprocal.  But 
if  we  throw  our  ports  wide  open  to  the  admission  of  foreign  pro- 
ductions, free  of  all  duty,  what  ports  of  any  other  foreign  nation 
shall  we  find  open  to  the  free  admission  of  our  surplus  produce  '? 
We  may  break  down  all  barriers  to  free  trade  on  our  part,  but  the 
work  will  not  be  complete,  until  foreign  powers  shall  have  removed 
theirs.  There  would  be  freedom  on  one  side,  and  restrictions, 
prohibitions,  and  exclusions,  on  the  other.  The  bolts,  and  the  bars, 
and  the  chains,  of  all  other  nations  will  remain  undisturbed.  It  is, 
indeed,  possible,  that  our  industry  and  commerce  would  accommo- 
date themselves  to  this  unequal  and  unjust  state  of  things ;  for  such 
is  the  flexibility  of  our  nature,  that  it  bends  itself  to  all  circumstan- 
ces. The  wretched  prisoner,  incarcerated  in  a  jail,  after  a  long 
time,  becomes  reconciled  to  his  solitude,  and  regularly  notches 
down  the  passing  days  of  his  confinement. 

"  Gentlemen  deceive  themselves.  It  is  not  free  trade  that  they 
arc  recommending  to  our  acceptance.  It  is,  in  effect,  the  British 
colonial  system  that  we  are  invited  to  adopt ;  and,  if  their  policy 
prevail,  it  will  lead  substantially  to  the  recolonization  of  these 
states,  under  the  commercial  dominion  of  Great  Britain." 

The  opponents  of  Mr.  Clay  were  much  addicted  to  quote  for- 
eign authorities,  especially  British,  in  support  of  the  doctrine  of 
free  trade.  Whereupon  Mr.  Clay  flung  back  in  their  face  the  fol- 
lowing citation  from  a  speech  of  a  member  of  parliament : — 

If  was  idle  for  us  to  endeavor  to  iicrsua.de  other  nations  to  join 
with  us  in  adopting  the  'princijiles  of  lohat  was  called  'free  trade: 
Other  nations  knew,  as  well  as  the  noble  lord  opposite,  and  those 
who  acted  with  him,  lohat  we  mea?it  by  'free  trade,'  ivas  ?iothing 
more  nor  less  than,  by  means  of  the  great  'advantages  we  enjoyed,  to 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  191 

get  a  monoiiohj  of  all  their  marlicta  for  onr  manvfactures,  and  to 
prevent  them,  one  and  all,  from  ever  hccomin g  inanvfactnrivg  nations. 
When  the  system  of  reciprocity  and  free  trade  had  been  proposed 
to  a  French  ambassador,  his  remark  was,  that  the  plan  was  excel- 
lent in  theory,  but,  to  make  it  fair  in  practice,  it  would  be  neces- 
sary to  defer  the  attempt  to  put  it  in  execution  for  half  a  cenlury, 
until  France  should  be  on  the  same  footing  with  Great  Britain,  in 
marine,  in  manufactures,  in  capital,  and  the  many  other  peculiar 
advantages  which  it  now  enjoyed.  The  policy  that  France  acted 
on,  was  that  of  encouraging  its  native  manufactures,  and  it  was  a 
wise  policy  ;  because,  if  it  were  freely  to  admit  our  manufactures, 
it  would  speedily  be  reduced  to  the  rank  of  an  agricultural  nation  ; 
and  therefore,  a  poor  nation,  as  all  must  be  that  depend  exclusively 
upon  agriculture.  America  acted,  too,  upon  the  same  principle 
with  France.  America  legislated  for  futurity — legislated  for  an 
increasing  population..  America,  too,  was  prospering  under  this 
system.  In  twenty  years,  America  would  be  independent  of  Eng- 
land for  manufactures  altogether.  *  *  *  g^t  gjnce  the  peace, 
France,  Germany,  America,  and  all  the  other  countries  of  the 
world,  had  proceeded  upon  the  principle  of  encouraging  and  pro- 
tecting native  manufactures.'  " 

Mr.  Clay  also  edified  his  opponents,  and  all  whom  it  might  con- 
cern, with  some  curious  and  instructive  citations  from  the  work  of 
Joshua  Gee,  published  in  1750,  setting  forth  how  die  British  col' 
onies  ought  to  be  treated,  under  the  following  heads : — 

*'  'First,  that  manufactures,  in  American  colonies,  should  be  dis- 
couraged, or  prohibited.  *  *  *  Wg  ought  always  to  keep  a 
watchful  eye  over  our  colonies,  to  restrain  them  from  setting  up 
any  of  the  manufactures  which  are  carried  on  in  Great  Britain ; 
and  any  such  attempts  should  be  crushed  in  the  beginning;  for  if 
they  are  suffered  to  grow  up  to  maturity,  it  will  be  difficult  to  sup- 
press them. 

"  'Our  colonies  are  much  in  the  same  state  Ireland  was  in,  when 
they  began  the  woollen  manufactory,  and  as  their  numbers  increase, 
will  fall  upon  manufactures  for  clothing  themselves,  if  due  care  be 
not  taken  to  find  employment  for  them,  in  raising  such  productions 
as  may  enable  them  to  furnish  themselves  with  all  their  necessaries 
from  us.  *****  * 

"  'Secondly,  the  advantages  to  Great  Britain,  from  keeping  the 
colonists  dependent  on  her  for  their  essential  supplies. 

"  '  If  we  examine  into  the  circumstances  of  the  inhabitants  of 
our  plantations,  and  our  own,  it  will  appear,  that  not  one  fourth 
part  of  their  product  redounds  to  their  own  profit.;  for  out  of  all 
that  comes  here,  they  only  carry  back  clothing,  and  other  acommo- 
dations  for  their  families,  all  of  which  is  of  the  merchandise  and 
manufacture  of  diis  kingdom.' 


192  THE    rROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

"After  showing  how  this  system  tends  to  concentrate  all  the  sur- 
plus of  acquisition  over  absolute  expenditure  in  England,  he  says  : — 

"  'All  these  advantages  we  receive  by  the  plantations,  besides  the 
inorttrao-es  on  the  planters'  estates,  and  the  high  interest  they  pay 
us,  which  is  very  considerable;  and  therefore  very  great  care  ought 
to  be  taken  in  regulating  ail  the  affairs  of  the  colonists,  that  tlie 
planters  be  not  put  under  too  many  difficuUies,  but  encouraged  to 
go  on  cheerfully. 

"  'New  England  and  the  northern  colonies  have  not  commodities 
and  products  enough  to  send  us,  in  return,  for  purchasing  their 
necessary  clothing,  but  are  under  very  great  difficulties,  and  there- 
fore any  ordinary  sort  sells  with  them.  And  when  they  have  grown 
out  ofjashio7i  with  us,  they  are  new-fashioned  enough  there.'  " 

After  having  made  liberal  citations  of  this  kind  from  this  author, 
Mr.  Clay  says: — 

"Sir,  I  can  not  go  on  with  tliis  disgusting  detail.  Their  refuse 
goods,  their  old  shop-keepers,  their  cast-off  clothes  good  enough 
for  us!  Was  there  ever  a  scheme  more  artfully  devised,  by  which 
the  energies  and  faculties  of  one  people  should  be  kept  down,  and 
rendered  subservient  to  the  pride  and  the  pomp  and  the  power  of 
another?  The  system  then  proposed  differs  only  from  that  v/hich 
is  now  recommended  in  one  particular — that  was  intended  to  be 
enforced  by  power;  this  would  not  be  less  effectually  executed  by 
the  force  of  circumstances." 

Coincident  with  these  citations  made  by  Mr.  Clay  from  British 
authorities,  the  following  historical  facts  are  derived  from  Pitkin's 
Statistical  View :  In  1699,  the  British  parliament  prohibited  the  col- 
onies from  exporting  wool,  yarn,  or  woollen  fabrics,  and  from  carry- 
ing them  coastwise  from  one  colony  and  place  to  another.  In  1719, 
parliament  declared,  that  the  erection  of  manufactories  in  the  colo- 
nies tended  to  lessen  their  dependence  on  the  mother-country;  and 
the  English  manufacturers  memorialized  parliament,  that  the  colo- 
nies were  carrying  on  trade,  and  erecting  manufactories,  with  a 
view  to  obtain  legislation  to  arrest  it.  In  1731,  the  board  of  trade 
were  instructed  to  inquire  as  to  the  colonial  laws  made  to  encour- 
age manufactures,  as  to  manufactories  set  up,  and  as  to  the  trade 
carried  on  in  die  colonies,  and  to  report  thereon.  In  1732,  they 
reported,  that  Massachusetts  had  passed  a  law  to  encourage  manu- 
factures ;  that  the  people  of  New  York,  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island, 
and  Maryland,  had  fallen  into  the  manufacture  of  woollen,  and  linen, 
for  the  use  of  their  own  families,  and  of  flax  and  hemp  into  coarse 
bags  and  halters — all  which  interfered  with  the  profit  of  British  mer- 
chants.    The  board  recoDimendcd,  that  the  minds  of  the  people 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  193 

of  those  colonies  should  be  immediately  diverted,  and  a  stop  be 
put  to  it,  or  the  practice  would  be  extended.  The  same  year  par- 
liament prohibited  the  exportation  of  hats  from  the  colonies,  and 
trading  in  them  from  one  colony  to  another,  by  ships,  carts,  or 
horses.  No  hatter  should  set  up  business  who  had  not  served 
seven  years,  nor  have  more  than  two  apprentices,  and  no  black 
person  should  work  at  the  trade.  Iron  mills  for  slitting  and  rolling, 
and  plating-forges,  were  prohibited,  under  a  penalty  of  five  hundred 
pounds.  This  system  of  prohibition  and  restriction  continued  to 
increase,  till  the  colonies  rebelled,  and  declared  independence  in 
1776. 

To  return  to  Mr.  Clay.     In  answer  to  the  objections  to  the  pro- 
tective policy,  from  the  cotton-planting  interest,  Mr.  Clay  said : — 

*'It  is  alleged,  that  the  system  operates  prejudicially  to  the  cotton 
planter,  by  diminishing  the  foreign  demand  for  his  staple;  that  we 
can  not  sell  to  Great  Britain  unless  we  buy  from  her;  that  the  im- 
port duty  is  equivalent  to  an  export  duty,  and  falls  upon  the  cot- 
ton-grower; that  South  Carolina  pays  a  disproportionate  quota  of 
the  public  revenue;  that  an  abandonment  of  the  protective   policy 
would  lead  to  an  augmentation  of  our  exports,  of  an  amount  not 
less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  dollars;  and,  finally, 
that  the  south  can  not  partake  of  the  advantages  of  manufacturing, 
if  there  be  any.     Let   us  examine  these  various  propositions  in 
detail.     First,  that  the  foreign  demand   for  cotton  is  diminished, 
and  that  we  can  not  sell  to  Great  Britain  unless  we  buy  from  her. 
The  demand  of  both  our  great  foreign  customers  is  constantly  and 
annually  increasing.     It  is  true,  that  the  ratio  of  the  increase  may 
not  be  equal  to  that  of  production ;  but  this  is  owing  to  the  fact, 
that  the  power  of  producing  the  raw  material  is  much  greater,  and 
is,  therefore,  constandy  in  advance  of  die  power  of  consumption. 
A  single  fact  will  illustrate.     The  average  produce  of  laborers  en- 
gaged in  the  cultivation  of  cotton,  may  be  estimated  at  five  bales, 
or  fifteen   hundred   weight  to   the  hand.     Supposing  the  annual 
average  consumption  of  each  individual  who  uses  cotton   cloth,  to 
be  five  pounds,  one  hand  can  produce  enough  of  the  raw  material 
to  clothe  three  hundred. 

"The  argument  comprehends  two  errors,  one  of  fact  and  the 
other  of  principle.  It  assumes  that  we  do  not  in  fact  purchase  of 
Great  Britain.  What  is  the  true  state  of  the  case?  There  are 
certain,  but  very  few  ardcles  which  it  is  thought  sound  policy  re- 
quires that  we  should  manufacture  at  home,  and  on  these  the  tariff 
operates.  But,  with  respect  to  all  the  rest,  and  much  the  larger 
number  of  articles  of  taste,  fashion,  and  utility,  they  are  subject  to 
no  other  than  revenue  duties,  and  are  freely  introduced.  I  have 
before  me  from  the  treasury  a  statement  of  our  imports  from  Eng- 

VoL.  TI.— 13 


194  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

land,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  including  ten  years,  preceding  the 
last,  and  three  quarters  of  the  last  year,  from  which  it  will  appear 
that,  althoijfrh  there  are  some  fluctuations  in  the  amount  of  the  dif- 
ferent  years,  the  largest  amount  imported  in  any  one  year  has  been 
since  the  tariff  of  1S24,  and  that  the  last  year's  importation,  when 
the  returns  of  the  fourth  quarter  shall  be  received,  will  probably  be 
the  greatest  in  the  whole  term  of  eleven  years. 

"  iVow,  if  it  be  admitted  that  there  is  a  less  amount  of  the  pro- 
tected articles  imported  from  Great  Britain,  she  may  be,  and  prob- 
ably is,  compensated  for  the  deficiency,  by  the  increased  consump- 
tion in  America  of  the  articles  of  her  industry  not  falling  within 
the  scope  of  the  policy  of  our  protection.  The  establishment  of 
manufactures  among  us  excites  the  creation  of  wealth,  and  this 
gives  new  powers  of  consumption,  which  are  gratified  by  the  pur- 
chase of  foreign  objects.  A  poor  nation  can  never  be  a  great  con- 
suming nation.  Its  poverty  will  limit  its  consumption  to  bare  sub- 
sistence. 

"  The  erroneous  principle  which  the  argument  includes,  is,  that 
it  devolves  on  us  the  duty  of  taking  care  that  Great  Britain  shall 
be  enabled  to  purchase  from  us  without  exacting  from  Great  Brit- 
ain the  corresponding  duty.  If  it  be  true  on  one  side  that  nations 
are  bound  to  shape  their  policy  in  reference  to  the  ability  of  foreign 
powers,  it  must  be  true  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  And  this 
reciprocal  obligation  ought  to  be  emphatically  regarded  toward  the 
nation  supplying  the  raw  material,  by  the  manufacturing  nation, 
because  the  industry  of  the  latter  gives  four  or  five  values  to  what 
had  been  produced  by  the  industry  of  the  former. 

"But,  does  Great  Britain  practise  toward  us  upon  the  principles 
which  we  are  now  required  to  observe  in  regard  to  her?  The 
exports  to  the  united  kingdom,  as  appears  from  the  same  treasury 
statement  just  adverted  to,  during  eleven  years,  from  1821  to  18-31, 
and  exclusive  of  the  fourth  quarter  of  the  last  year,  fall  short  of 
the  amount  of  imports  by  upward  of  forty-six  millions  of  dollars, 
and  the  total  amount,  when  the  returns  of  that  quarter  are  received, 
will  exceed  fifty  millions  of  dollars !  It  is  surprising  how  we  have 
been  able  to  sustain,  for  so  long  a  time,  a  trade  so  very  unequal. 
We  must  have  been  absolutely  ruined  by  it,  if  the  unfavorable  bal- 
ance had  not  been  neutralized  by  more  profitable  commerce  with 
other  parts  of  the  world.  Of  all  nations,  Great  Britain  has  the 
least  cause  to  complain  of  the  trade  between  die  two  countries. 
Our  imports  from  that  single  power  are  nearly  one  third  of  the  en- 
tire amount  of  our  importations  from  all  foreign  countries  together, 
(ireat  Britain  constantly  acts  on  the  maxim  of  buying  only  what 
she  wants  and  can  not  produce,  and  selling  to  foreign  nations  the 
utmost  amount  she  can.  In  conformity  with  this  maxim,  she  ex- 
cludes articles  of  prime  necessity  produced  by  us,  equally  if  not 
more  necessary  than  any  of  her  industry  which  we  tax,  although 


TKE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  195 

the  admission  of  those  articles  would  increase  our  ability  to  pur- 
chase from  her,  according  to  the  argument  of  gentlemen. 

"If  we  purchased  still  le«s  from  Great  Britain  than  we  do,  and 
our  conditions  were  reversed,  so  that  the  value  of  her  imports  from 
this  country  exceeded  that  of  her  exports  to  it,  she  would  only 
then  be  compelled  to  do  what  we  have  so  long  done,  and  what 
tSouth  Carolina  does,  in  her  trade  with  Kentucky,  make  up  for  the 
unfavorable  balance  by  trade  with  other  places  and  countries.  How 
does  she  now  dispose  of  the  one  hundred  and  sixty  millions  of 
dollars  worth  of  cotton  fabrics,  which  she  annually  sells?  Of  that 
amount  the  United  States  do  not  purchase  five  per  centum.  What 
becomes  of  the  other  ninety-five  per  centum  ?  Is  it  not  sold  to 
other  powers,  and  would  not  their  markets  remain,  if  ours  were 
totally  shut?  Would  she  not  continue,  as  she  now  finds  it  her 
interest,  to  purchase  the  raw  material  from  us,  to  supply  those 
markets?  Would  she  be  guilty  of  the  folly  of  depriving  herself 
of  markets  to  the  amount  of  upward  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  mil- 
lions of  dollars,  because  we  refused  her  a  market  for  some  eight 
or  ten  millions  ? 

"  But  if  there  were  a  diminution  of  the  British  demand  for  cot- 
ton equal  to  the  loss  of  a  market  for  the  few  British  fabrics  which 
are  within  the  scope  of  our  protective  policy,  the  question  would 
still  remain,  whether  the  cotton-planter  is  not  amply  indemnified  by 
the  creation  of  additional  demand  elsewhere?  With  respect  to  the 
cotton-grower,  it  is  the  totalhy  of  the  demand,  and  not  its  distri- 
bntlon,  which  affects  his  interests.  If  any  system  of  policy  will 
augment  the  aggregate  of  the  demand,  that  system  is  favorable  to 
his  interests,  although  its  tendency  may  be  to  vary  the  theatre  of 
the  demand.  It  could  not,  for  example,  be  injurious  to  him,  if, 
instead  of  Great  Britain  continuing  to  receive  the  entire  quantity 
of  cotton  which  she  now  does,  two  or  three  hundred  thousand 
bales  of  it  were  taken  to  the  other  side  of  the  channel,  and  in- 
creased to  that  extent  the  French  demand.  It  would  be  better  for 
him,  because  it  is  always  better  to  have  several  markets  than  one. 
Now  if,  instead  of  a  transfer  to  the  opposite  side  of  the  channel, 
of  those  two  or  three  hundred  thousand  bales,  tliey  are  transported 
to  the  northern  states,  can  that  be  injurious  to  the  cotton-grower? 
Is  it  not  better  for  him  ?  Is  it  not  better  to  have  a  market  at  home, 
unaffected  by  war,  or  other  foreign  causes,  for  that  amount  of  his 
staple  ? 

"If  the  establishment  of  American  manufactures,  therefore,  had 
the  sole  effect  of  creating  a  new  and  an  American  demand  for  cot- 
ton, exactly  to  the  same  extent  in  which  it  lessened  the  British  de- 
mand, there  would  be  no  just  cause  of  complaint  against  the  tariff. 
The  gain  in  one  place  would  precisely  equal  the  loss  in  the  odier. 
But  the  true  state  of  the  matter  is  much  more  favorable  to  the  cot- 
ton-fi-rower.     It  is  calculated  that  the  cotton  manufactories  of  the 


196  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

United  States  absorb  at  least  two  hundred  thousand  bales  of  cotton 
annually.     I  believe  it  to  be  more.     The  two  ports  of  Boston  and 
Providence  alone  received  during  the  last  year  near  one  hundred 
and    ten  thousand    bales.     The  amount   is    annually    increasing. 
The  raw  material  of  that  two  hundred  thousand  bales  is  worth  six 
millions,  and  there  is  an  additional  value  conferred  by  the  manu- 
facturer of  eighteen  millions  ;  it  being  generally  calculated  that,  in 
such  cotton  fabrics  as  we  are  in  the  habit  of  making,  the  manufac- 
ture constitutes  three  fourths  of  the  value  of  the  article.     If,  there- 
fore,  these  twenty-four  millions  worth  of  cotton  fabrics  were  not 
made  in  the  United  States,  but  were  manufactured  in  Great  Brit- 
ain, in  order  to  obtain  them,  we  should  have  to  add  to  the  already 
enormous  disproportion  between  the  amount  of  our  imports  and 
exports,  in  the  trade  with  Great  Britain,  the  further  sum  of  twenty- 
four  millions,  or,  deducting  the  price  of  the  raw  material,  eighteen 
millions!     And  will  gentlemen  tell  me  how  it  would  be  possible 
for  this  country  to  sustain  such  a  ruinous  trade  ?     From  all  that 
portion  of  the  United  States  lying  north  and  east  of  James  river, 
and  west  of  the  mountains.  Great  Britain  receives  comparatively 
nothing.     How  would  it  be   possible  for  the  inhabitants  of  that 
largest  portion  of  our  territory,  to  supply  themselves  with  cotton 
fabrics,  if  they  were  brought  from  England  exclusively?     They 
could  not  do  it.     But  for  the  existence  of  the  American  manu- 
facture, they  would  be  compelled  greatly  to  curtail  their  supplies, 
if  not  absolutely  to  suffer  in  their  comforts.     By  its  existence  at 
home,  the  circle  of  those  exchanges  is  created,  which  reciprocally 
diffuses  among  all  who  are  embraced  within  it  the  productions  of 
tlieir  respective  industry.     The  cotton-grower  sells  the  raw  mate- 
rial to  the  manufacturer;  he  buys  the  iron,  the  bread,  the  meal, 
the  coal,  and  the  countless  number  of  objects  of  his  consumption 
from    his  fellow-cidzens,  and    they  in  turn   purchase  his  fabrics. 
Putting  it  upon  the  ground  merely  of  supplying  those  with  neces- 
sary articles  who  could  not  otherwise  obtain  them,  ought  there  to 
be  from  any  quarter  an  objection  to  the  only  system  by  which  that 
object  can  be  accomplished?     But  can  there  be  any  doubt,  with 
those  who  will  reflect,  that  the  actual  amount  of  cotton  consumed 
is  increased  by  the  home  manufocture  ?      The  main  argument  of 
gentlemen  is  founded  upon  the  idea  of  mutual  ability  resulting  from 
mutual  exchanges.     They  would  furnish  an  ability  to  foreign  na- 
tions by  purchasing  from  them,  and   I,  to  our  own  people,  by  ex- 
changes at  home.     If  die  American  manufacture  were  discontin- 
ued, and  tliat  of  England  were  to  take  its  place,  how  would  she 
sell  the  additional  quantity  of  twenty-four  millions  of  cotton  goods, 
which  we  now  make  ?     To  us  ?     That  has  been  shown  to  be  im- 
practicable.     To  other  foreign  nations  ?      She  has  already  pushed 
her  supplies  to  them  to  the  utmost  extent.      The   ultimate  conse- 
quence would  then  be,  to  diminish  the  total  consumption  of  cot- 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  197 

ton,  to  say  nothing  now  of  the  reduction  of  price  that  would  take 
place  by  throwing  into  the  ports  of  Great  Britain  the  two  hundred 
thousand  bales,  which,  no  longer  being  manufactured  in  the  United 
States,  Avould  go  thither." 

It  should  be  observed,  that  many  of  the  statistics  of  1832,  in 
amount  and  relative  bearings,  have  very  much  changed  since  that 
time.  For  example,  as  stated  in  the  above  extract,  Mr.  Clay 
puts  the  annual  consumption  of  raw  cotton  by  the  manufactories 
of  the  United  States  at  two  hundred  thousand  bales.  In  1844  it 
was  four  hundred  thousand,  and  in  1845  was  expected  to  reach 
five  hundred  thousand — one  fourth  of  the  entire  average  product. 
In  political  economy,  this  is  an  item  of  great  importance,  and 
gready  enhances  the  force  of  Mr.  Clay's  argument,  as  is  the  effect 
of  other  changes  of  time.  The  home  consumption  of  raw  cotton 
— all  worth  counting— began  in  1816  ;  in  1825,  it  was  one  hun- 
dred thousand  bales  ;  and  its  subsequent  increase  as  above.  In 
1825,  the  exports  of  American  cotton  manufactures,  amounted  to 
$2,858,000  ;  in  1S40,  to  $3,549,000  ;  and  is  annually  on  the 
increase. 

If  the  reader's  risibles  are  not  affected  when  he  comes  to  the 
argumentum  ad  abstirdum,  which  Mr.  Clay,  in  the  following  ex- 
tract, thrusts  on  his  opponents,  he  must  want  perception  : — 

"  Second,  that  the  import  duty  is  equivalent  to  an  export  duty, 
and  falls  on  the  producer  of  cotton. 

"  The  framers  of  our  constitution,  by  granting  the  power  to 
Congress  to  lay  imports,  and  prohibiting  that  of  laying  an  export 
dut}^  manifested  that  they  did  not  regard  them  as  equivalent.  Nor 
does  the  common  sense  of  mankind.  An  export  duty  fastens 
upon,  and  incorporates  itself  with,  the  article  on  which  it  is  laid. 
The  article  can  not  escape  from  it — it  pursues  and  follows  it, 
wherever  the  article  goes  ;  and  if,  in  the  foreign  market,  the  supply 
is  above  or  just  equal  to  the  demand,  the  amount  of  the  export  duty 
will  be  a  clear  deduction  to  the  exporter  from  the  price  of  the  ar- 
ticle. But  an  import  duty  on  a  foreign  article  leaves  the  exporter 
of  the  domestic  article  free,  first,  to  import  specie  ;  secondly,  goods 
which  are  free  from  the  protecting  duty  ;  or,  thirdly,  such  goods 
as,  being  chargeable  with  the  protecting  duty,  he  can  sell  at  home, 
and  throw  the  duty  on  the  customer. 

"  But  it  is  confidently  argued  that  the  import  duty  falls  upon  the 
grower  of  cotton  :  and  the  case  has  been  put  in  debate,  and  again 
and  again  in  conversation,  of  the  South  Carohna  planter,  who 
exports  one  hundred  bales  of  cotton  to  Liverpool,  exchanges  them 
for  one  hundred  bales  of  merchandise,  and  when  he  brings  them 


198  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

home,  being  compelled  to  leave  at  the  customhouse  forty  bales  in 
the  form  of  duties.  The  argument  is  founded  on  the  assumption 
that  a  duty  of  forty  per  centum  amounts  to  a  subtraction  of  forty 
from  the  one  hundred  bales  of  merchandise.  The  first  objection 
to  it  is,  diat  it  supposes  a  case  of  barter,  which  never  occurs.  If 
it  be  replied,  that  it  nevertheless  occurs  in  the  operations  of  com- 
merce, the  answer  would  be  that,  since  the  export  of  Carolina  cot- 
ton is  chiefly  made  by  New  York  or  foreign  merchants,  the  loss 
stated,  if  it  really  accrued,  would  fall  upon  them,  and  not  upon 
the  planter.  But,  to  test  the  correctness  of  the  hypothetical  case, 
let  us  sjqrpose  that  the  duty,  instead  of  forty  per  centum,  should  be 
o?ie  hundred  and  fifty,  which  is  asserted  to  be  the  duty  in  some  cases. 
Then,  the  pdanter  would  not  only  lose  the  whole  hundred  bales  of 
merchandise,  u-hich  he  had  gotten  for  his  hundred  bales  of  cotton, 
but  he  would  have  to  purchase,  with  other  means,  an  additional  fifty 
bales,  in  order  to  enable  him  to  pay  the  duties  accruing  on  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  cotton  !  Another  answer  is,  that  if  the  producer  of  cot- 
ton in  America  exchanged  against  English  fabrics,  pays  the  duty, 
the  producer  of  thoee  fabrics  also  jmys  it,  arid  then  it  is  twice 
paid!  Such  must  be  the  consequence,  unless  the  principle  is  true  on 
one  side  of  the  Atlaritic,  and  false  on  the  other.  The  true  answer 
is,  that  the  exporter  of  an  article,  if  he  invests  its  proceeds  in  a 
foreign  market,  takes  care  to  make  the  investment  in  such  mer- 
chandise as,  when  brought  home,  he  can  sell  with  a  fair  profit ; 
and,  consequently,  the  consumer  would  pay  the  original  cost  and 
charges,  and  profit." 

The  following,  too,  is  an  astounding  answer  : — 

"  Third.     The  next  objection  to  the  American  system  is,  that 
it  subjects  South  Carolina  to  the  payment  of  an  undue  proportion 
of  the  public  revenue.      The  basis  of  this  objection  is  the  assump- 
tion shown  to  have   been  erroneous,  that  the  producer  of  die  ex- 
ports from  this  country  pays  the  duty  on  its  imports,  instead  of  the 
consumer  of  those  imports.     The  amount  which  South  Carolina 
really  contributes  to  the  public  revenue,  no  more  than  that  of  any 
odier  state,   can   be  precisely  ascertained.     It  depends   upon  her 
consumption  of  articles  paying  duties,  and  we  may  make  an   ap- 
proximation   sufficient  for    all    practical  purposes.     The    cotton- 
planters  of  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  with  whom  I  am  acquainted, 
generally  expend  about  one  third  of  their  income  in  the  support 
of  their  families  and   plantations.      On   this  subject  I   hold  in   my 
liands  a  statement  from  a  friend  of  mine,  of  gieat  accuracy,  and  a 
member  of  the  senate.     According  to  this  statement,  in  a  crop  of 
ten  thousand    dollars,  the  expenses    may   fluctuate   between    two 
thousand  eight  hundred  dollars  and  three  thousand  two  hundred 
dollars.     Oi  this  sum,  about  one  fourth,  from  seven  to  eight  hundred, 
dollars,  may  be  laid  out  in  articles  paying  the  protective  duty  ;  the 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  199 

residue  is  disbursed  for  provisions,  mules,  horses,  oxen,  wages  of 
overseer,  &c.  Estimating  the  exports  of  South  Carolina  at  eight 
millions,  one  third  is  two  millions  six  hundred  and  sixty-six  thou- 
sand six  hundred  and  sixty-six  dollars;  of  which  one  fourth  will  be, 
six  hundred  and  sixty-six  thousand  six  hundred  and  sixty-six  and. 
two  thirds  dollars.  Now  supposing  the  protecting  duty  to  be  fifty 
per  centum,  and  that  it  all  enters  into  the  price  of  the  article,  the 
amount  2)aid  by  South  Carolina  urmld  oiily  be  three  hundred  and 
thirty-three  thousand  three  hundred  and  thirty-tliree  and  one  third 
dollars.  But  the  total  revenue  of  the  United  States  may  be  stated 
at  twenty-five  millions,  of  which  the  proportion  of  South  Carolina, 
whatever  standard,  whether  of  wealth  or  population,  be  adopted, 
would  be  about  one  million.  Of  course,  on  this  view  of  the  sub- 
ject, she  actually  pays  only  about  one  third  of  her  fair  and  legiti- 
mate share.  1  repeat  that,  I  have  no  personal  knowledge  of  the 
habits  of  actual  expenditure  in  South  Carolina ;  they  may  be 
greater  than  I  have  stated,  in  respect  to  other  parts  of  the  cotton 
country  ;  but  if  they  are,  that  fact  does  not  arise  from  any  defect 
in  the  system  of  public  policy. 

"  Fourth.  An  abandonment  of  the  American  system,  it  is  urged, 
would  lead  to  an  addition  to  our  exports  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
millions  of  dollars.  The  amount  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions 
of  cotton  in  the  raw  state,  would  produce  four  hundred  and  fifty 
millions  in  the  manufactured  state,  supposing  no  greater  measure 
of  value  to  be  communicated,  in  the  manufactured  form,  than  that 
which  our  industry  imparts.  Now,  sir,  where  would  markets  be 
found  for  this  vast  addition  to  the  supply  ?  Not  in  the  United 
States,  certainly,  nor  in  any  other  quarter  of  the  globe,  England 
having  already  everywhere  pressed  her  cotton  manufactures  to  the 
utmost  point  of  repletion.  We  must  look  out  for  new  worlds, 
seek  for  new  and  unknown  races  of  mortals,  to  consume  this  im- 
mense increase  of  cotton  fabrics  ! 

[General  Hayne  said,  that  he  did  not  mean  that  the  increase 
of  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions  to  the  amount  of  our  exports 
would  be  of  cotton  alone,  but  of  other  articles.] 

'■'■What  other  articles')  Agricultural  produce — bread-stuffs, 
beef  and  pork,  and  so  forth  ?  Where  shall  we  find  markets  for 
them?  Whither  shall  we  go?  To  what  country,  whose  ports 
are  not  hermetically  sealed  against  their  admission  ?  Break  down 
the  home  market  and  you  are  without  resource.  Destroy  all  other 
interests  in  the  country,  for  the  imaginary  purpose  of  advancing 
the  cotton-planting  interest,  and  you  inflict  a  positive  injury,  with- 
out the  smallest  practical  benefit  to  the  cotton-planter.  Could 
Charleston,  or  the  whole  south,  when  all  other  markets  are  pros- 
trated, or  shut  against  the  reception  of  the  surplus  of  our  farmers, 
receive  that  surplus  ?  Would  they  buy  more  than  they  might 
want  for  their  own  consumption  ?     Could  they  find  markets  which 


200  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

Other  parts  of  the  Union  could  not  ?  Would  gentlemen  force  the 
freemen  of  all  north  of  James  river,  east  and  west,  like  the  miser- 
able slave,  on  the  sabbath-day,  to  repair  to  Charleston,  with  a 
turkey  under  his  arm,  or  a  pack  upon  his  back,  and  beg  the  clerk 
of  some  English  or  Scotch  merchant,  living  in  his  gorgeous  palace, 
or  rolling  in  his  splendid  coach  in  the  streets,  to  exchange  his 
'  truck''  for  a  bit  of  flannel  to  cover  his  naked  wife  and  children  ! 
No  !  I  am  sure  that  I  do  no  more  than  justice  to  their  hearts,  when 
I  believe  that  they  would  reject  what  I  believe  to  be  the  inevitable 
effects  of  their  policy. 

"  Fifth.  But  it  is  contended,  in  the  last  place,  that  the  south 
can  not,  from  physical  and  other  causes,  engage  in  the  manufac- 
turing arts.  I  deny  the  premises,  and  I  deny  the  conclusion.  I 
deny  the  fact  of  inability  ;  and,  if  it  existed,  I  deny  the  conclusion, 
that  we  must,  therefore,  break  down  our  manufactures,  and  nourish 
those  of  foreign  countries.  The  south  possesses,  in  an  extraordi- 
nary degree,  two  of  the  most  important  elements  of  manufacturing 
industry — water-power  and  labor.  *  #  »  #  Lgj.  j^  j^g 
supposed,  however,  that  the  south  can  not  manufacture :  must 
those  parts  of  the  Union  which  can,  be  therefore  prevented  ? 
Must  we  support  those  of  foreign  countries  ?  I  am  sure  that  in- 
justice would  be  done  to  the  generous  and  patriotic  nature  of 
South  Carolina,  if  it  were  believed  that  she  envied  or  repined  at 
the  success  of  other  portions  of  the  Union  in  branches  of  industry 
to  which  she  might  happen  not  to  be  adapted.     Throughout  her 

whole  career  she  has  been  liberal,  national,  high-minded. 

******** 

"  I  pass  to  two  general  propositions  which  cover  the  entire 
ground  of  debate.  The  first  is,  that,  under  the  operation  of  the 
American  system,  the  objects  which  it  protects  and  fosters  are 
brought  to  the  consumer  at  cheaper  prices  than  they  commanded 
prior  to  its  introduction,  or,  than  they  would  command  if  it  did 
not  exist.  If  that  be  true,  ought  not  the  country  to  be  contented 
and  satisfied  with  the  system,  unless  the  second  proposition,  which 
1  mean  presently  also  to  consider,  is  unfounded  ?  And  that  is,  that 
the  tendency  of  the  system  is  to  sustain,  and  that  it  has  upheld,  the 
prices  of  all  our  agricultural  and  other  produce,  including  cotton. 

"  And  is  the  fact  not  indisputable,  that  all  essential  objects  of 
consumption  affected  by  the  tariff,  are  cheaper  and  better  since  the 
act  of  1S24,  than  they  were  for  several  years  prior  to  that  law?  T 
appeal  for  its  truth  to  common  observation,  and  to  all  practical 
men.  I  appeal  to  the  farmer  of  the  country,  whether  he  does  not 
purchase  on  better  terms  his  iron,  salt,  brown  sugar,  cotton  goods, 
and  woollens,  for  his  laboring  people?  And  I  ask  the  cotton- 
planter  if  he  has  not  been  better  and  more  cheaply  supplied  with 
his  cotton-bagging?  *  *  *  I  plant  myself  upon  this  fact,  of 
cheapness  and  superiority,  as  upon  impregnable  ground.     Gen- 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  201 

tlemen  may  tax  their  ingenuity,  and  produce  a  thousand  specula- 
tive solutions  of  the  fact,  but  the  fact  itself  will  remain  undisturbed. 
******** 

"  I  take  this  to  be  a  true  principle,  that  if  our  country  is  pro- 
ducing a  raw  material  of  prime  necessity,  and  with  reasonable  pro- 
tection, can  produce  it  in  sufficient  quantity  to  supply  our  wants, 
that  raw  materal  ought  to  be  protected,  although  it  may  be  proper 
to  protect  the  article  also  out  of  which  it  is  manufactured.  The 
tailor  will  ask  protection  for  himself,  but  wishes  it  denied  to  the 
grower  of  wool  and  the  manufacturer  of  broadcloth.  The  cotton 
planter  enjoys  protection  for  the  raw  material,  but  does  not  desire 
it  to  be  extended  to  the  cotton  manufacturer.  The  shipbuilder 
will  ask  protection  for  navigation,  but  does  not  wish  it  extended 
to  the  essential  articles  which  enter  into  the  construction  of  his 
ship.  Each  in  his  proper  vocation  solicits  protection,  but  would 
have  it  denied  to  all  other  interests  which  are  supposed  to  come 
into  collision  with  his. 

"  Now  the  duty  of  the  statesman  is,  to  elevate  himself  above 
these  petty  conflicts — calmly  to  survey  all  the  various  interests, 
and  deliberately  to  proportion  the  measures  of  protection  to  each, 
according  to  its  nature  and  to  the  general  wants  of  society.  *  *  * 
The  success  of  our  manufacture  of  coarse  cottons  is  generally 
admitted.  It  is  demonstrated  by  the  fact  that  they  meet  the  cotton 
fabrics  of  other  countries  in  foreign  markets,  and  maintain  a  success- 
ful competition  with  them.  There  has  been  a  gradual  increase  of 
the  exports  of  this  article,  which  is  sent  to  Mexico  and  the  South 
American  republics,  to  the  Mediterranean,  and  even  to  Asia.  The 
remarkable  fact  was  lately  communicated  to  me,  that  the  same  in- 
dividual, who  twenty-five  years  ago  was  engaged  in  the  importation 
of  cotton  cloth  from  Asia  for  American  consumption,  is  now  en- 
gaged in  the  exportation  of  coarse  American  cottons  to  Asia,  for 
Asiatic  consumption  !  And  my  honorable  friend  from  Massachu- 
setts, now  in  my  eye  [Mr.  Silsbee],  informed  me,  that  on  his 
departure  from  home,  among  the  last  orders  which  he  gave,  one 
was  for  the  exportation  of  coarse  cottons  to  Sumatra,  in  the  vicin- 
ity of  Calcutta  !  I  hold  in  my  hand  a  statement,  derived  from  the 
most  authentic  source,  showing  that  the  identical  description  of 
cotton  cloth,  which  sold  in  1817  at  twenty-nine  cents  per  yard, 
was  sold  in  1819  at  twenty-one  cents,  in  1821  at  nineteen  and  a 
half  cents,  in  1823  at  seventeen  cents,  in  1825  at  fourteen  and  a 
half  cents,  in  1827  at  thirteen  cents,  in  1829  at  nine  cents,  in  1830 
at  nine  and  a  half  cents,  and  in  1831  at  from  ten  and  a  half  to 
eleven.  Such  is  the  wonderful  effect  of  protection,  competition, 
and  improvement  in  skill,  combined  !  The  year  1829  was  one 
of  some  suffering  to  this  branch  of  industry,  probably  owing  to  the 
principle  of  competition  being  pushed  too  far.  Hence  we  observe 
a  small  rise  in  the  article  of  the  next  two  years.     The  introduction 


202  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

of  calico-printing  into  the  United  States,  constitutes  an  important 
era  in  our  manufacturing  industry.  It  commenced  about  the  year 
1825,  and  has  since  made  such  astonisliing  advances,  that  the 
whole  quantity  now  annually  printed  is  but  little  short  of  forty  mill- 
ions of  yards — about  two  thirds  of  our  whole  consumption.  It  is 
a  beautiful  manufacture,  combining  great  mechanical  skill  with 
scientific  discoveries  in  chymistry.  The  engraved  cylinders  for 
making  the  impression  require  much  taste,  and  put  in  requisition 
the  genius  of  the  fine  arts  of  design  and  engraving.  Are  the  fine 
graceful  forms  of  our  fair  countrywomen  less  lovely  when  envel- 
oped in  the  chintzes  and  calicoes  produced  by  native  industry, 
than  when  clothed  in  the  tinsel  of  foreign  drapery  ? 

"  Gentlemen  are  no  doubt  surprised  at  these  facts.  They 
should  not  underrate  the  energies,  the  enterprise,  and  the  skill  of 
our  fellow-citizens.  I  have  no  doubt  they  are  every  way  compe- 
tent to  accomplish  whatever  can  be  effected  by  any  other  people, 
if  encouraged  and  protected  by  the  fostering  care  of  our  own  gov- 
ernment. Will  gentlemen  believe  the  fact,  which  I  am  authorized 
now  to  state,  that  the  United  States,  at  this  time,  manufacture  one 
half  the  quantity  of  cotton  which  Great  Britain  did  in  1816  !  We 
possess  three  great  advantages  :  first,  the  raw  material ;  second, 
water-power  instead  of  that  of  steam,  generally  used  in  England  ; 
and,  third,  the  cheaper  labor  of  females.  In  England,  males  spin 
with  the  mule  and  weave  ;  in  this  country,  women  and  girls  spin 
with  the  throstle,  and  superintend  the  power-loom.  And  can  there 
be  any  employment  more  appropriate  ?  Who  has  not  been  de- 
lighted with  contemplating  the  clockwork  regularity  of  a  large  cot- 
ton manufactory  ?  I  have  often  visited  them  at  Cincinnati  and 
other  places,  and  always  with  increased  admiration.  The  women, 
separated  from  the  other  sex,  work  in  apartments,  large,  airy,  well 
warmed,  and  spacious.  Neatly  dressed,  with  ruddy  complexions, 
and  happy  countenances,  they  watch  the  work  before  them,  mend 
the  broken  threads,  and  replace  the  exhausted  balls  or  broaches. 
At  stated  hours  they  are  called  to  their  meals,  and  go  and  return 
with  light  and  cheerful  step.  At  night  they  separate,  and  repair 
to  their  respective  houses,  under  the  care  of  a  mother,  guardian, 
or  friend.  *  *  *  In  respect  to  woollens,  every  gendeman's 
own  observation  and  experience  will  enable  him  to  judge  of  the 
great  reduction  of  price  which  has  taken  place  in  most  of  these 
articles,  since  the  tariff  of  1824.  It  would  have  been  still  greater, 
but  for  the  higli  duty  on  the  raw  material,  imposed  for  the  partic- 
ular benefit  of  the  farming  interest.  But,  without  going  into  par- 
ticular details,  I  shall  limit  myself  to  inviting  the  attention  of  the 
senate  to  a  single  article  of  general  and  necessary  use.  The  pro- 
tection given  to  flannels  in  1828  was  fully  adequate.  It  has  ena- 
bled the  American  manufacturer  to  obtain  complete  possession  of 
the  American  market ;  and  now,  let  us  look  at  the  efl'ect.     I  have 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICV.  203 

before  me  a  statement  from  a  highly  respectable  mercantile  house, 
showing  the  price  of  for.r  descriptions  of  flannel  during  six  years. 
The  average  price  of  them,  in  1826,  was  thirty-eight  cents  and 
three  quarters;  in  1827,  thirty-eight;  in  1828  (the  year  of  the 
tariff),  forty-six ;  in  1829,  thirty-six ;  in  1830  (notwithstanding 
the  advance  in  the  price  of  wool),  thirty-two;  and  in  1831,  thirty- 
two  and  one  quarter.  These  facts  require  no  comments.  1 
have  before  me  another  statement  of  a  practical  and  respectable 
man,  well  versed  in  the  flannel  manufacture  in  America  and  Eng- 
land, demonstrating  that  the  cost  of  manufacture  is  precisely  the 
same  in  both  countries  ;  and  that,  although  a  yard  of  flannel  which 
would  sell  in  England  at  fifteen  cents,  would  command  here  twen- 
ty-two, the  difference  of  seven  cents  is  the  exact  difference  between 
the  cost  in  the  two  countries,  of  the  six  ounces  of  wool  contained 
in  a  yard  of  flannel. 

"Brown  sugar,  during  ten  years,  from  1792  to  1802,  with  a 
duty  of  one  and  a  half  cents  per  pound,  averaged  fourteen  cents 
per  pound.  The  same  article,  during  ten  years,  from  1820  to 
1830,  with  a  duty  of  three  cents,  has  averaged  only  eight  cents 
per  pound.  Nails,  with  a  duty  of  five  cents  per  pound,  are  selling 
at  six  cents.  Window-glass,  eight  by  ten,  prior  to  the  tariff  of 
1824,  sold  at  twelve  or  thirteen  dollars  per  hundred  feet;  it  now 

sells  for  three  dollars  and  seventy-five  cents. 

********** 

"  Of  all  human  powers  operating  on  the  affairs  of  mankind,  none 
is  greater  than  that  of  competition.  It  is  action  and  reaction.  It 
operates  between  individuals  in  the  same  nation,  and  between  dif- 
ferent nations.  It  resembles  the  meeting  of  the  mountain  torrent, 
grooving,  by  its  precipitous  motion,  its  own  channel,  and  ocean's 
tide.  Unopposed,  it  sweeps  everything  before  it ;  but,  counter- 
poised, the  waters  become  calm,  safe,  and  regular.  It  is  like  the 
segments  of  a  circle,  or  an  arch  :  taken  separately,  each  is  nothing, 
but  in  their  combination  they  produce  efficiency,  symmetry,  and 
perfection.  By  the  American  system  this  vast  power  has  been  ex- 
cited in  America,  and  brought  into  being  to  act  in  co-operation  or 
collision  with  European  industry.  Europe  acts  within  itself,  and 
with  America;  and  America  acts  within  itself,  and  with  Europe. 
The  consequence  is  the  reduction  of  prices  in  both  hemispheres. 
Nor  is  it  fair  to  argue  from  the  reduction  of  prices  in  Europe,  to 
her  own  presumed  skill  and  labor  exclusively.  We  affect  her 
prices,  and  she  affects  ours.  This  must  always  Be  the  case,  at 
least  in  reference  to  any  articles  as  to  which  there  is  not  a  total 
non-intercourse;  and  if  our  industry,  by  diminishing  the  demand 
for  her  supplies,  should  produce  a  diminution  in  the  price  of  those 
supplies,  it  would  be  very  unfair  to  ascribe  that  reduction  to  her 
ingenuity,  instead  of  placing  it  to  the  credit  of  our  own  skill  and 
excited  industry. 


204  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

*'  Practical  men  understand  very  well  this  state  of  the  case, 
whether  they  do  or  do  not  comprehend  the  causes  which  produce 
it.  1  have  in  my  possession  a  letter  from  a  respectable  merchant, 
well  known  to  me,  in  which  he  says,  after  complaining  of  the  op- 
eration of  the  tariff  of  182S,  on  the  articles  to  which  it  appHes, 
some  of  which  he  had  imported,  and  that  his  purchases  having 
been  made  in  England,  before  the  passage  of  that  tariff  was  known, 
it  produced  such  an  effect  upon  the  English  market,  that  the  arti- 
cles could  not  be  resold  without  loss.  He  adds  :  '  For  it  really 
appears,  that,  when  additional  duties  are  laid  upon  an  article,  it 
then  becomes  loxccr  instead  o{  higher.''  This  would  not  probably 
happen,  where  the  supply  of  the  foreign  article  did  not  exceed 
the  home  demand,  unless  upon  the  supposition  of  the  increased 
duty  having  excited  or  stimulated  the  measure  of  the  home  pro- 
duction, r 

"  The  great  law  of  ijrice  is  determined  by  supply  and  demand. 
Whatever  affects  either,  affects  the  price.  If  the  supply  is  in- 
creased, the  demand  remaining  the  same,  the  price  declines  ;  if 
the  demand  is  increased,  the  supply  remaining  the  same,  the  price 
advances ;  if  both  supply  and  demand  are  undiminished,  the  price 
is  stationary,  and  the  price  is  influenced  exactly  in  proportion  to 
the  degree  of  disturbance  to  the  demand  or  supply.  It  is,  there- 
fore, a  great  error  to  suppose  that  an  existing  or  new  duty  necessa- 
rilij  becomes  a  component  element  to  its  exact  amount  of  price. 
U  the  proportions  of  demand  and  supply  are  varied  by  the  duty, 
either  in  augmenting  the  supply,  or  diminishing  the  demand,  or 
vice  versa,  price  is  affected  to  the  extent  of  that  variation.  But  the 
duty  never  becomes  an  integral  part  of  the  price,  except  in  the  in- 
stances where  the  demand  and  the  supply  remain,  after  the  duty  is 
imposed,  precisely  what  they  were  before,  or  the  demand  is  in- 
creased, and  the  supply  remains  stationary. 

"  Competition,  therefore,  wherever  existing,  whether  at  home 
or  abroad,  is  the  parent  cause  of  cheapness.  If  a  high  duty  ex- 
cites production  at  home,  and  the  quantity  of  the  domestic  article 
exceeds  the  amount  which  had  been  previously  imported,  the  price 
will  fall.  This  accounts  for  an  extraordinary  fact  stated  by  a  sen- 
ator from  Missouri.  Three  cents  were  laid  as  a  duty  upon  a  pound 
of  lead,  by  the  act  of  J  S2S.  The  price  at  Galena,  and  the  other 
lead  mines,  afterward  fell  to  one  and  a  half  cents  per  pound.  Now 
it  is  obvious  that  the  duty  did  not,  in  this  case,  enter  into  the  price  ; 
for  it  was  twice  the  amount  of  the  price.  What  produced  the 
fall  ■/  It  was  stimiilntcd  production  at  home,  excited  by  the  temp- 
tation of  the  exclusive  possession  of  the  home  market.  This  state 
of  things  could  not  last.  Men  would  not  continue  an  unprofitable 
pursuit:  some  abandoned  the  business,  or  the  total  quantity  pro- 
duced was  diminished,  and  living  prices  have  been  the  consequence. 
But  break  down  the  domestic  supply,  place  us  again  in  a  state  of 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  205 

dependence  on  the  foreign  source^  and  can  it  be  doubted  that  we 
should  ultimately  have  to  supply  ourselves  at  dearer  rates?  It  is 
not  fair  to  credit  the  foreign  market  with  the  depression  of  prices 
produced  there  by  the  influence  of  our  competition.  Let  the  com- 
petition be  withdrawn,  and  their  prices  would  instantly  rise.  On 
this  subject,  great  mistakes  are  committed.  *  *  *  *  It  is  not, 
therefore,  those  who,  by  keeping  on  dudes,  keep  down  prices,  that 
tax  the  people  ;  but  those  who,  by  repealing  duties,  would  raise 
prices,  that  really  impose  burdens  upon  the  people. 

"  But  it  is  argued,  that  if,  by  the  skill,  experience,  and  perfec- 
tion, which  we  have  acquired  in  certain  branches  of  manufacture, 
they  can  be  made  as  cheap  as  similar  articles  abroad,  and  enter 
fairly  into  competition  with  them,  why  not  repeal  the  duties  as  to 
those  articles?  And  why  should  we?  Assuming  the  truth  of  the 
supposition,  the  foreign  article  would  not  be  introduced  in  the  reg- 
ular course  of  trade,  but  would  remain  excluded  by  the  possession 
of  the  home  market,  which  the  domestic  article  had  obtained. 
The  repeal,  therefore,  would  have  no  legitimate  effect.  But  might 
not  the  foreign  article  be  imported  in  vast  quantities,  to  glut  our 
markets,  break  down  our  establishments,  and  ultimately  to  enable 
the  foreigner  to  monopolize  the  supply  of  our  consumption  ? 
America  is  the  greatest  foreign  market  for  European  manufactures. 
It  is  that  to  which  European  attention  is  constantly  directed.  If  a 
great  house  becomes  bankrupt  there,  its  storehouses  are  emptied, 
and  the  goods  are  shipped  to  America,  where,  in  consequence  of 
our  auctions,  and  our  customhouse  credits,  the  greatest  facilities 
are  afforded  in  the  sale  of  them.  Combinations  among  manufac- 
turers might  take  place,  or  even  the  operations  of  foreign  govern- 
ments might  be  directed  to  the  destruction  of  our  establishments. 
A  repeal,  therefore,  of  one  protecting  duty,  from  some  one  or  all 
of  these  causes,  would  be  followed  by  flooding  the  country  with 
the  foreign  fabric,  surcharging  the  market,  reducing  the  price,  and 
a  complete  prostration  of  our  manufactories  ;  after  which  the  for- 
eigner would  leisurely  look  about  to  indemnify  himself  in  the  in- 
creased prices  which  he  would  be  enabled  to  command  by  his 
monopoly  of  the  supply  of  our  consumption.  What  American 
citizen,  after  the  government  had  displayed  this  vacillating  policy, 
would  be  again  tempted  to  place  the  smallest  confidence  in  the 
public  faith,  and  adventure  once  more  in  this  branch  of  industry  ? 

"  Gentlemen  have  allowed  to  the  manufacturing  portions  of  the 
community  no  peace  ;  they  have  been  constantly  threatened  with 
the  overthrow  of  the  American  system.  From  the  year  1820,  if 
not  from  181G,  down  to  this  time,  they  have  been  held  in  a  con- 
dition of  constant  alarm  and  insecurity.  Nothing  is  more  prejudi- 
cial to  the  great  interests  of  a  nation  than  unsettled  and  varying 
policy.  Although  every  appeal  to  the  national  legislature  has  been 
responded  to  in  conformity  with  the  wishes  and  sentiments  of  the 


206  THE     PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

great  majority  of  the  people,  measures  of  protection  have  only  been 
carried  by  such  small  majorities  as  to  excite  hopes  on  the  one 
hand,  and  fears  on  the  other.  Let  the  country  breathe,  let  its  vast 
resources  be  developed,  let  its  energies  be  fully  put  forth,  let  it 
have  tranquillity,  and,  my  word  for  it,  the  degree  of  perfection  in 
the  arts,  which  it  will  exhibit,  will  be  greater  than  that  which  has 
been  presented,  astonishing  as  our  progress  has  been.  Although 
some  branches  of  our  manufactures  might,  and  in  foreign  markets 
now  do,  fearlessly  contend  with  similar  foreign  fabrics,  there  are 
many  others,  yet  in  their  infancy,  struggling  with  the  difficulties 
which  encompass  them.  We  should  look  at  the  whole  system, 
and  recollect  that  time,  when  we  contemplate  the  great  movements 
of  a  nation,  is  very  different  from  the  short  period  which  is  allotted 
for  the  duration  of  individual  life.  The  honorable  gentleman  from 
South  Carolina  well  and  eloquently  said,  in  1824 :  '  No  great  in- 
terest of  any  country  ever  yet  grew  up  in  a  day  ;  no  new  branch 
of  industry  can  become  firmly  and  profitably  established,  but  in  a 
long  course  of  years;  everything,  indeed,  great  or  good,  is  matured 
by  slow  degrees ;  that  which  attains  a  speedy  maturity  is  of  small 
value,  and  is  destined  to  a  brief  existence.  It  is  the  order  of  Prov- 
idence, that  powers  gradually  developed,  shall  alone  attain  perma- 
nency and  perfection.  Thus  must  it  be  with  our  national  institu- 
tions, and  national  character  itself.' 

***  ***** 

"  I  have  now  to  consider  the  remaining  of  the  two  propositions 
which  I  have  already  announced.  That  is,  that,  under  the  opera- 
tion of  the  American  system,  the  products  of  our  agriculture  com- 
mand a  higher  price  than  they  would  do  without  it,  by  the  creation 
of  a  home  market,  and  by  the  augmentation  of  wealth  produced 
by  manufacturing  industry,  which  enlarges  our  powers  of  consump- 
tion, both  of  domestic  and  foreign  articles.  The  importance  of  the 
home  market  is  among  the  established  maxims  which  are  univer- 
sally recognised  by  all  writers  and  all  men.  However  some  may 
differ  as  to  the  relative  advantao;es  of  the  forei2;n  and  the  home 
market,  none  deny  to  the  latter  great  value  and  high  consideration. 
It  is  nearer  to  us,  beyond  the  control  of  foreign  legislation,  and 
undisturbed  by  those  vicissitudes  to  which  all  international  inter- 
course is  more  or  less  exposed.  The  most  stupid  are  sensible  of 
the  benefit  of  a  residence  in  the  vicinity  of  a  large  manufactory,  or 
of  a  market  town,  of  a  good  road,  or  of  a  navigable  stream,  which 
connects  their  farms  with  some  great  capital.  If  the  pursuits  of  all 
men  were  perfectly  the  same,  although  they  would  be  in  possession 
of  the  greatest  abundance  of  the  particular  produce  of  their  indus- 
try, they  might,  at  the  same  time,  be  in  extreme  want  of  other 
necessary  articles  of  human  subsistence.  The  uniformity  of  the 
general  occupation  would  preclude  all  exchanges,  all  commerce. 
It  is  only  in  the  diversity  of  the  vocations  of  the  members  of  a 


THE    TROTECTIVE    POLICY.  207 

community,  that  the  means  can  be  found  for  those  salutary  ex- 
changes which  conduce  to  the  general  prosperity.  And  the  greater 
that  diversity,  the  more  extensive  and  the  more  animating  is  the 
circle  of  exchange.  Even  if  foreign  markets  were  freely  and  widely 
open  to  the  reception  of  our  agricultural  produce,  from  its  bulky 
nature,  and  the  distance  of  the  interior,  and  the  dangers  of  the 
ocean,  large  portions  of  it  could  never  profitably  reach  the  foreign 
market.  But  let  us  quit  this  field  of  theory,  clear  as  it  is,  and  look 
at  the  practical  operation  of  the  system  of  protection,  beginning 
with  the  most  valuable  staple  of  our  agriculture. 

"  In  considering  this  staple,  the  first  circumstance  that  excites 
our  surprise,  is  the  rapidity  with  which  the  amount  of  it  has  annu- 
ally increased.  Does  not  this  fact,  however,  demonstrate  that  the 
cultivation  of  it  could  not  have  been  so  very  unpiofitable  ?  If  the 
business  were  ruinous,  would  more  and  more  have  annually  en- 
oaged  in  it?  The  quantity  in  1816,  was  eighty-one  millions  of 
pounds  ;  in  1826,  two  hundred  and  four  mi'lions;  and  in  1830, 
near  three  hundred  millions  !  The  ground  of  greatest  surprise  is, 
that  it  has  been  able  to  sustain  even  its  present  price  with  such  an 
enormous  augmentation  of  quantity.  It  could  not  have  been  done 
but  for  the  combined  operation  of  three  causes,  by  which  the  con- 
sumption of  cotton  fabrics  has  been  greatly  extended,  in  conse- 
quence of  their  reduced  prices  :  first,  competition  ;  second,  the 
improvement  of  labor-saving  machinery  ;  and,  thirdly,  the  low 
price  of  the  raw  material.  The  crop  of  1819,  amounting  to  eighty- 
eight  millions  of  pounds,  produced  twenty-one  millions  of  dollars  ; 
the  crop  of  1823,  when  the  amount  was  swelled  to  one  hundred 
and  seventy  four  millions  (almost  double  that  of  1819),  produced 
a  less  sum  by  more  than  half  a  milHon  of  dollars  ;  and  the  crop  of 
1824,  amounting  to  thirty  millions  of  pounds  less  than  that  of  the 
preceding  year,  produced  a  million  and  a  half  of  dollars  more. 

"  If  there  be  any  foundation  for  the  established  law  of  price, 
supply  and  demand,  ought  not  the  fact  of  this  great  increase  of  the 
supply  to  account  satisfactorily  for  the  alleged  low  price  of  cotton? 
Is  it  necessary  to  look  beyond  that  single  fact  to  the  tariff,  to  the 
diminished  price  of  the  mines  furnishing  the  precious  metals,  or  to 
any  other  cause,  for  the  solution  ?  *  *  *  If  there  be  any  truth 
in  the  facts  and  principles  which  I  have  before  stated,  and  endeav- 
ored to  illustrate,  it  can  not  be  doubted  that  the  existence  of  Amer- 
ican manufactures  has  tended  to  increase  the  demand,  and  extend 
the  consumption  of  the  raw  material  ;  and  that,  but  for  this  in- 
creased demand,  the  price  of  the  article  would  have  fallen,  possibly 
one  half  lower  than  it' now  is.  The  error  of  the  opposite  argument 
is,  in  assuming  one  thing,  which  being  denied,  the  whole  fails ; 
that  is,  it  assumes  that  the  v:hole  labor  of  the  United  States  would 
be  profitably  employed  without  manufactures.  Now,  the  truth  is, 
that  the  system  excites  and  creates  labor,  and  this  labor  creates 


208  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

wealth,  and  this  new  wealth  communicates  additional  ability  to 
consume,  which  acts  on  all  the  objects  contributing  to  human 
comfort  and  enjoyment.  The  amount  of  cotton  imported  into  the 
two  ports  of  Boston  and  Providence  alone  during  the  last  year 
(and  it  was  imported  exclusively  for  the  home  manufacture),  was 
one  hundred  and  nine  thousand  five  hundred  and  seventeen  bales. 

"  On  passing  from  that  article  to  others  of  our  agricultural  pro- 
duction, we  shall  find  not  less  gratifying  facts.  The  total  quantity 
of  flour  imported  into  Boston,  during  the  same  year,  was  two  hun- 
dred and  eighty-four  thousand  five  hundred  and  four  barrels,  and 
three  thousand  nine  hundred  and  fifty-five  half  barrels ;  of  which, 
there  were  from  Virginia,  Georgetown,  and  Alexandria,  one  hun- 
dred and  fourteen  thousand  two  hundred  and  twenty-two  barrels ; 
of  Indian  corn,  six  hundred  and  eighty-one  thousand  one  hundred 
and  thirty-one  bushels  ;  of  oats,  two  hundred  and  thirty-nine  thou- 
sand eight  hundred  and  nine  bushels  ;  of  rye,  about  fifty  thousand 
bushels  ;  and  of  shorts,  thirty-three  thousand  four  hundred  and 
eighty-nine  bushels  ;  into  the  port  of  Providence,  seventy-one 
thousand  three  hundred  and  sixty-nine  barrels  of  flour;  two  hun- 
dred and  sixteen  thousand  six  hundred  and  sixty-two  bushels  of 
Indian  corn,  and  seven  thousand  seven  hundred  and  seventy-two 
bushels  of  rye.  And  there  were  discharged  at  the  port  of  Phila- 
delphia, four  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  three  hundred  and  fifty- 
three  bushels  of  Indian  corn ;  two  hundred  and  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  seventy-eight  bushels  of  wheat,  and  one  hun- 
dred and  ten  thousand  five  hundred  and  fifty-seven  bushels  of  rye 
and  barley.  There  were  slaughtered  in  Boston  during  the  same 
year,  1831  (the  only  northern  city  from  which  I  have  obtained  re- 
turns),, thirty-three  thousand  nine  hundred  and  twenty-two  beef- 
cattle  ;  fifteen  thousand  and  four  hundred  calves ;  eighty-four 
thousand  four  hundred  and  fifty-three  sheep,  and  twenty-six  thou- 
sand eight  hundred  and  seventy-one  swine.  It  is  confidently  be- 
lieved, that  there  is  not  a  less  quantity  of  southern  flour  consumed 
at  the  north  than  eight  hundred  thousand  barrels,  a  greater  amount, 
probably,  than  is  shipped  to  all  the  foreign  markets  of  the  world 
together. 

"  What  would  be  the  condition  of  the  farming  country  of  the 
United  States — of  all  that  portion  which  lies  north,  east,  and  west 
of  James  river,  including  a  large  part  of  iVorth  Carolina — if  a 
home  market  did  not  exist  for  this  immense  amount  of  agricultu- 
ral produce?  Without  that  market,  where  could  it  be  sold"?  In 
foreign  markets?  If  their  restrictive  laws  did  not  exist,  their  ca- 
pacity would  not  enable  them  to  purchase  and  consume  this  vast 
addition  to  their  present  supplies,  which  must  be  thrown  in,  or 
thrown  away,  but  for  the  home  market.  But  their  laws  exclude 
us  from  their  markets.  I  shall  content  myself  by  calling  the  at- 
tention of  the  senate  to  Great  Britain  only.     The  dutie's  in  the 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  209 

ports  of  the  united  kingdom  on  bread-stuffs  are  prohibitory,  ex- 
cept in  times  of  dearth.  On  rice,  the  duty  is  fifteen  shilhngs 
sterhng  per  hundred  weight,  being  more  than  one  hundred  per 
centum-  On  manufactured  tobacco  it  is  nine  shilhngs  sterhng  per 
pound,  or  about  two  thousand  per  centum.  Of  leaf  tobacco 
three  shillings  per  pound,  or  one  thousand  two  hundred  per  cent. 
On  lumber,  and  some  other  articles,  they  are  from  four  hundred 
to  fifteen  hundred  per  centum  more  than  on  similar  articles  im- 
ported from  British  colonies.  In  the  British  West  Indies  the  duty 
on  beef,  pork,  hams,  and  bacon,  is  twelve  shillings  sterling  per 
hundred,  more  than  one  hundred  per  centum  on  the  first  cost  of 
beef  and  pork  in  the  western  states.  And  yet  Great  Britain  is  the 
power  in  whose  behalf  we  are  called  upon  to  legislate,  so  that  ive 
may  enable  her  to  purchase  our  cotton  ! — Great  Britain,  that 
thinks  only  of  herself  in  her  own  legislation  !  When  have  we 
experienced  justice,  much  less  favor,  at  her  hands  ?  When  did 
she  shape  her  legislation  in  reference  to  the  interests  of  any  for- 
eign power  ?  She  is  a  great,  opulent,  and  powerful  nation  ;  but 
haughty,  arrogant,  and  supercilious — not  more  separated  from  the 
rest  of  the  world  by  the  sea  that  girts  her  island,  than  she  is  sep- 
arated in  feeling,  sympathy,  or  friendly  consideration  of  their  wel- 
fare. Gentlemen,  in  supposing  it  impracticable  that  we  should 
successfully  compete  with  her  in  manufactures,  do  Injustice  to  the 
skill  and  enterprise  of  their  own  country.  Gallant  as  Great  Brit- 
ain undoubtedly  Is,  we  have  gloriously  contended  with  her,  man 
to  man,  gun  to  gun,  ship  to  ship,  fleet  to  fleet,  and  army  to  army. 
And  I  have  no  doubt  we  are  destined  to  achieve  equal  success  in 
the  more  useful.  If  not  nobler  contest  for  superiority  in  the  arts  of 
civil  life. 

"  I  could  extend  and  dwell  on  the  long  list  of  articles — the 
hemp,  iron,  lead,  coal,  and  other  items — for  which  a  demand  is 
created  in  the  home  market  by  the  operation  of  the  American  sys- 
tem ;  but  I  should  exhaust  the  patience  of  the  senate.  WJicrr, 
where  should  we  find  a  market  for  all  these  articles,  if  it  did  not 
exist  at  home  ?  What  would  be  the  condition  of  the  largest  por- 
tion of  our  people,  and  of  the  territory,  If  this  home  market  were 
annihilated  ?  How  could  they  be  supplied  with  objects  of  prime 
necessity?  What  would  not  be  the  certain  and  Inevitable  decline 
In  the  price  of  all  these  articles,  but  for  the  home  market?  And 
allow  me,  Mr.  President,  to  say,  that  of  all  the  agricultural  parts 
of  the  United  States  which  are  benefited  by  the  operation  of  this 
system,  none  are  equally  so  with  those  which  border  the  Chesa- 
peake bay,  the  lower  parts  of  North  Carolina,  Virginia,  and  the 
two  shores  of  Maryland.  Their  facilities  of  transportation,  and 
proximity  to  the  north,  give  them  decided  advantages. 

"  But  If  all  this  reasoning  were  totally  fallacious  ;  if  the  price 
of  manufactured  articles  were  really  higher,  under  the  American 

Vol.  11.-14 


210  THE     PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

system,  than  without  it;  I  should  still  argue  that  high  or  low 
prices  were  themselves  relative — relative  to  the  ability  to  pay 
them.  It  is  in  vain  to  tempt,  to  tantalize  us  with  the  lower  prices 
of  European  fabrics  than  our  own,  if  we  have  nothing  wherewith 
to  purchase  them.  If,  by  the  home  exchanges,  we  can  be  sup- 
plied with  necessary,  even  if  they  are  dearer  and  worse  articles 
of^  American  production  than  the  foreign,  it  is  better  than  not  to 
be  supplied  at  all.  And  how  would  the  large  portion  of  our 
country,  which  I  have  described,  be  supplied,  but  for  the  home 
exchanges  ?  A  poor  people,  destitute  of  wealth  or  of  exchangeable 
commodities,  has  nothing  to  purchase  foreign  fabrics  with.  To 
them  they  are  equally  beyond  their  reach,  whether  their  cost  be  a 
dollar  or  a  guinea.  It  is  in  this  view  of  the  matter  that  Great  Brit- 
ain, by  her  vast  weahh,  her  exdtcd  and  protected  industry,  is  enabled 
to  bear  a  burden  of  taxation,  which,  when  compared  to  that  of 
other  nations,  appears  enormous  ;  but  which,  when  her  immense 
riches  are  compared  to  theirs,  is  light  and  trivial.  The  gentle- 
man from  South  Carolina  has  drawn  a  lively  and  flattering  picture 
of  our  coasts,  bays,  rivers,  and  harbors  ;  and  he  argues  that  these 
proclaimed  the  design  of  Providence,  that  we  should  be  a  com- 
mercial people.  I  agree  with  him.  We  differ  only  as  to  the 
means.  He  would  cherish  the  foreign,  and  neglect  the  internal 
trade.  I  would  foster  both.  What  is  navigation  without  ships, 
or  ships  without  cargoes  ?  By  penetrating  the  bosoms  of  our 
mountains,  and  extracting  from  them  their  precious  treasures ;  by 
cultivating  the  earth,  and  securivg  a  home  market  for  its  rich  and 
abundant  products;  by  employing  the  water  power  with  which  we 
are  blessed  ;  by  stimulating  and  protecting  our  native  industry,  in 
all  its  forms,  we  shall  but  nourish  and  promote  the  prosperity  of 
commerce,  foreign  and  domestic. 

"  I  have  hitherto  considered  the  question,  in  reference  only  to 
a  state  of  peace  ;  but  a  season  of  war  ought  not  to  be  entirely 
overlooked.  We  have  enjoyed  near  twenty  years  of  peace  ;  but 
who  can  tell  when  the  storm  of  war  shall  again  break  forth  ?  Have 
we  forgotten,  so  soon,  the  privations  to  which  not  merely  our 
brave  soldiers  and  our  gallant  tars  were  subjected,  but  the  whole 
community,  during  the  last  war,  for  the  want  of  absolute  necessa- 
ries? To  what  an  enormous  price  they  rose!  And  how  inade- 
quate the  supply  was,  at  any  price!  The  statesman  who  justly 
elevates  his  views,  will  look  behind  as  well  as  forward,  and  at  the 
existing  state  of  things  ;  and  he  will  graduate  the  policy,  which 
he  recommends,  to  all  the  probable  exigences  which  may  arise  in 
the  republic.  Taking  this  comprehensive  range,  it  would  be  easy 
to  show  that  the  higher  prices  of  peace,  if  prices  locre  higher  in 
peace,  were  more  than  compensated  by  the  lower  prices  of  war, 
during  wbich,  supplies  of  all  essential  articles  are  indispensable  to 
its  vigorous,  effectual,  and  glorious  prosecution.     I  conclude  this 


I 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICV.  SM 

part  of  the  argument  with  the  hope  that  my  humble  exertions  have 
not  been  aho^ether  unsuccessful  in  showino; : — 

"First,  that  the  policy  which  we  have  been  considering  ought 
to  continue  to  be  regarded  as  the  genuine  American  system. 

"  Secondly,  that  the  free-trade  system,  which  is  proposed  as  its 
substitute,  ought  really  to  be  considered  as  the  British  colonial 
system. 

**  Thirdly,  that  the  American  system  is  beneficial  to  all  parts  of 
the  Union,  and  absolutely  necessary  to  much  the  larger  portion. 

"Fourthly,  that  the  price  of  the  great  staple  of  cotton  and  of  all 
our  chief  productions  of  agriculture,  has  been  sustained  and  up- 
held, and  a  decline  averted,  by  the  protective  system. 

"  Fifthly,  that  if  the  foreign  demand  for  cotton  has  been  at  all 
diminished,  by  the  operation  of  that  system,  the  diminution  has 
been  more  than  compensated,  in  the  additional  demand  created  at 
home. 

"  Sixthly,  that  the  constant  tendency  of  the  system,  by  creating 
competition  among  ourselves,  and  between  American  and  Euro- 
pean industry,  reciprocally  acting  upon  each  other,  is  to  reduce 
prices  of  manufactured  articles. 

"  Seventhly,  that,  in  point  of  fact,  articles  within  the  scope  of 
the  policy  of  protection,  have  greatly  fallen  in  price. 

"Eighthly,  that  if,  in  a  season  of  peace,  these  benefits  are  ex- 
perienced, in  a  season  of  war,  when  the  foreign  supply  miglit  be 
cut  ofl',  they  would  be  much  more  extensively  felt. 

"  Ninthly,  and  finally,  that  the  substitution  of  the  British  colo- 
nial system  for  the  American  system,  without  benefiting  any  sec- 
tion of  the  Union,  by  subjecting  us  to  a  foreign  legislation,  regu- 
lated by  foreign  interests,  would  lead  to  the  prostration  of  our 
manufactories,  general  impoverishment,  and  ultimate  ruin." 

Thus  was  Mr.  Clay  obliged,  in  1832,  to  fight  over  again  the 
battles  of  former  years,  when  the  protective  policy  was  supposed 
to  have  been  for  ever  settled  and  established  in  the  country.  A 
new  political  era  was  opened  in  the  ascendency  of  Andrew  Jack- 
son to  power,  and  to  maintain  that  ascendency,  it  was  necessary 
to  break  up  that  system  of  national  policy,  which  Mr.  Clay,  more 
than  any  other  man — which  Mr.  Clay  as  leader — had  been  the  in- 
strument in  originating,  organizing,  and  establishing.  The  pro- 
tective policy  was  indeed  but  one  part  of  that  system  ;  but  it  was 
a  fundamental  and  vital  part.  Mr.  Clay's  soul  as  a  patriot,  was 
embarked  in  it,  and  his  fame  as  a  statesman  was,  in  a  great  meas- 
ure, staked  upon  it.  After  a  protracted  and  painful  struggle,  he 
and  his  coadjutors  had  succeeded,  in  1824,  in  rescuing  the  coun- 
try from  ruin,  and  it  had  gone  on  for  a  series  of  years,  in  a  ca- 


212  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICV. 

reer  of  prosperity,  unparalleled  before  or  since.  Notwilhstanding 
the  public  odium  which  had  been  brought  upon  Mr.  Clay,  by  the 
temporary  success  of  the  conspiracy  to  accuse  him  of  "  bargain 
and  corruption,"  in  the  election  of  Mr.  Adams,  he  was  rising  again 
to  eclipse  his  foes,  by  the  beneficent  operation  of  his  plan  of  public 
policy.  To  assail  it  directly  and  openly,  on  its  merits,  would  not 
do  ;  to  let  it  live,  and  flourish,  and  bless  the  land,  was  to  let  him 
live  and  flourish,  his  fame  being  identified  therewith.  It  must 
therefore  be  undermined  by  indirection — broken  up — overthrown. 
The  wisdom  of  his  policy  must  be  confounded,  by  confounding  and 
annihilating  its  results. 

No  person,  having  read  the  foregoing  argument  of  Mr.  Clay  on 
the  protective  policy,  extracted  from  his  matchless  efforts  of  1832, 
if  that  person  is  at  all  interested  in  understanding  the  subject,  would 
consent  that  it  should  be  abridged.  Considered  only  as  a  speci- 
men of  eloquent,  logical,  unanswerable  reasoning,  it  is  unsurpassed ; 
but  as  an  exposition  and  defence  of  the  protective  system,  it  may, 
without  fear  of  contradiction,  be  pronounced  complete  in  the  most 
essential  attributes  of  all  argument — clearness,  fact,  and  logical 
deduction.  It  was  the  peril  of  the  cause  that  put  him  to  the  task, 
and  his  own  fitness  for  the  duty  that  enabled  him  to  discharge  it 
with  such  brilliant  and  triumphant  success,  so  far  as  its  convincing 
power  is  concerned,  in  its  influence  on  unprejudiced  minds.  And 
the  argument  is  not  more  remarkable  for  its  irresistible  force,  and 
for  its  consummate  structure,  than  for  its  beauties.  While  it  re- 
mains, the  cause  is  defended,  and  there  is  no  answer  that  can  be 
made  to  it.  Amplifications  there  may  be  on  new  facts,  and  fresh 
developments  of  history  ;  but  the  germ  and  full  maturity  of  the 
policy  are  there,  comprehending  equally  the  past,  the  present,  ancj 
the  future. 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  213 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF. 

Mr.  Clay's  Views  of  Public  Policy  in  a  Letter  to  the  Hon.  J.  S.  Johnston.— Con- 
troversy between  the  President  and  Vice-President,  General  Jackson  and  Mr. 
Calhoun. — Pilate  and  Herod  a^ree  in  one  Thing. — Nullification. — General 
Jackson  attempts  to  kill  two  JBirds  at  one  Throw. — Fails  to  kill  either. — 
Publication  of  the  Ordinance  of  Nullification. — General  Jackson's  Proclama- 
tion.— Governor  Hayne's  Counter  Proclamation. — South  Carolina  in  a  State  of 
Rebellion. — Mr.  Clay's  Opinion  of  General  Jackson's  Proclamation  in  a  Private 
Letter. — The  Proclamation  a  Failure. — General  Jackson  misses  his  Game. — 
Mr.  Clay  on  the  Alert  to  save  the  Protective  Policy. — Difficulties  of  his  Posi- 
tion.— Matures  his  Plan. — Proposes  the  Compromise. — Explains  it  to  the  Sen- 
ate.— Analysis  of  the  Bill. — Its  favorable  Reception. — The  Administration 
(Mr.  Verplanck's)  Bill  under  Par.— A  Private  Letter  from  Mr.  Clay  of  this 
Date. 

The  following  extract  from  a  private  letter  of  Mr.  Clay  to  his 
particular  friend,  the  Hon.  J.  S.  Johnston,  U.  S.  senator  from 
Louisiana,  will  disclose  some  of  his  views  of  public  policy,  before 
he  returned  to  the  senate,  in  1831.  It  is  dated  at  Harrodsburg 
(Kentucky),  July  23,  1831  :— 

"  Of  the  events  at  Washington,  which  have  occurred  since  I  saw 
you,  I  need  say  but  little.  Every  one,  fond  of  his  country,  must 
have  seen  them  with  mortification  and  regret.  The  only  consola- 
tion deducible  from  them  is,  that  they  may  contribute  to  dispel  the 
delusion  which  placed  those  in  power,  who  have  occasioned  them. 

"You  request,  and  I  have  pleasure  in  communicating,  my  views 
of  the  policy  which  ought  to  be  observed  by  the  general  govern- 
ment, in  respect  to  the  tariff,  after  the  payment  of  the  public  debt. 

"1.  I  think  the  principle  of  protection,  both  in  theory,  and  its 
practical  application,  must  be  preserved. 

"  2.  That,  as  the  wants  of  the  government,  supposing  the  con- 
tinuance of  peace,  will  not  then  require  more  than  about  twelve 
millions  of  dollars,  duties  of  impost  ought  to  be  reduced  or  totally 
repealed,  upon  articles  of  foreign  growth,  not  competing  with  the 
productions  of  domestic  industry,  to  such  an  amount  as  will  leave 
the  revenue  about  that  sum.  This,  I  believe,  can  be  effected 
without  touching  any  of  the  leading  or  essential  articles  which  are 
now  protected. 


214  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

"3.  As  for  internal  improvements,  I  never  would  lay  one  cent 
of  tax  or  duty  for  their  prosecution;  but,  from  time  to  time,  as 
surpluses  of  revenue  accumulate,  they  should  be  applied  to  the 
object  of  their  promotion. 

"4.  The  renewal  of  the  charter  of  the  bank  of  the  United 
States,  with  any  modifications  which  may  have  been  suggested  by 
experience. 

"  These  are  the  general  principles.  Details  are  unnecessary. 
You  will  at  once  see  their  apphcation.  You  will  also  perceive  the 
expediency  of  your  considering  this  communication  confidential. 
The  country  is  at  present  so  much  excited,  on  most  of  the  above 
subjects,  that  neither  party  is  prepared  impartially  to  consider  any 
proposition  which  does  not  comprehend  all  it  asks,  in  whatever 
spirit  of  extravagance.  Any  publication  of  my  views  would  prob- 
ably expose  me  to  misconception  with  both  parties.  And  I  do  not 
think,  on  the  other  hand,  that,  during  the  contest  now  existing,  any 
opinions  of  mine  should  be  put  forth,  which  might  be  construed 
into  an  appeal,  on  my  part,  to  the  public." 

A  FEW  historical  reminiscences  here,  as  between  General  Jack- 
son and  Mr.  Calhoun,  will  perhaps  cast  some  light  on  events  now 
rapidly  maturing  to  a  crisis.  These  two  eminent  individuals,  the 
former  as  president,  and  the  latter  as  vice-president,  had  gone  on 
with  tolerable  harmony — possibly  in  sincere  friendship — till  some 
third  persons  had  forced  upon  the  president's  notice  the  facts,  that 
Mr.  Calhoun,  as  secretary  of  war,  under  Mr.  Monroe,  had  not 
only  taken  the  ground,  in  cabinet  counsel,  that  General  Jackson 
had  transcended  his  orders,  in  the  Seminole  war,  by  occupying  the 
Spanish  posts ;  but  that  he  was  in  favor  of  censure — of  punish- 
ment. It  is  not  material  to  the  present  object,  who  hoped  to  profit 
by  stirring  up  these  ashes ;  but  the  coals  touched  the  president  to 
the  quick,  and  he  immediately  called  on  the  vice-president,  by  a 
note,  transmitting  a  newly-discovered  document  as  the  ground  of 
his  action,  for  an  explanation.  Whereupon  the  vice-president, 
very  properly,  threw  himself  back  on  his  reserved  rights,  and  de- 
clined to  answer  a  private  inquiry  into  his  official  conduct.  The 
president  wrote  back,  that  it  was  unnecessary  to  say  more;  and 
from  that  moment  the  personal  feud  between  them  commenced,  the 
consequences  of  which  were  very  important  and  momentous.  It 
is  one  of  the  instructive  lessons  of  history  to  observe  how  such 
personal  matters  among  men  of  exalted  station  and  great  influence, 
affect  states  and  nations.  Mr.  Calhoun,  by  this  event,  was  cut 
off  from  his  chances  of  the  succession.     It  is  remarkable,  that  before 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  215 

General  Jackson  was  installed  for  his  second  term,  South  Carolina 
nullification  burst  forth  upon  the  land! 

The  opposition  of  some  portions  of  the  south  to  the  protective 
policy,  was  not  in  itself  sufficient  to  shake  its  foimdations,  and 
menace  it  with  overthrow.  It  was  the  junction  of  that  force  with 
the  personal  feelings  of  the  president  in  another  direction  from 
Mr.  Calhoun,  that  made  both  formidable,  and  precipitated  the 
country  into  a  new  and  unexpected  crisis.  It  was  not  material  that 
these  two  agencies,  these  two  wills — that  of  General  Jackson  and 
that  of  Mr.  Calhoun — should  have  the  same  ultimate  design,  so  long 
as  they  could  act  together  in  removing  an  obstacle  which  lay  in  the 
path  of  both.  They  might  hate  each  other  as  much  as  each  hated 
their  common  opponent,  and  yet  unite  for  the  destruction  of  the 
latter.  That  there  was  a  moral  affinity  of  this  kind  between  the 
head  of  the  national  administration  and  the  leader  of  nullification, 
though  in  a  deadly  quarrel  with  each  other,  it  is  supposed,  will 
not  be  questioned. 

South  Carolina,  led  on  by  Mr.  Calhoun,  had  already  made  some 
strong  and  decided  demonstrations  of  her  purpose,  when  Mr. 
Clay  was  engaged  in  this  debate  in  the  senate  of  the  United  States, 
in  February,  1832.  It  was  impossible,  therefore,  that  this  state  of 
things  in  that  quarter  should  be  disregarded  on  such  an  occasion. 
In  allusion  to  it,  Mr.  Clay  said: — 

*'  With  respect  to  this  Union,  Mr.  President,  the  truth  can  not  be 
too  generally  proclaimed,  nor  too  strongly  inculcated,  that  it  is  ne- 
cessary to  the  whole  and  to  all  the  'parts — necessary  to  those  parts, 
indeed,  in  different  degrees,  but  vitally  necessary  to  each — and 
that  threats  to  disturb  or  dissolve  it,  coming  from  any  of  the 
parts,  would  be  quite  as  indiscreet  and  improper  as  would  be 
threats  from  the  residue  to  exclude  those  parts  from  the  pale  of  its 
benefits.  The  great  principle,  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  all 
free  governments,  is,  that  the  majority  must  govern — from  which 
there  is,  or  can  be,  no  appeal  but  to  the  sword.  That  majority  ought 
to  govern  wisely,  equitably,  moderately,  and  constitutionally,  but 
govern  it,  must,  subject  only  to  that  terrible  appeal.  If  ever  one  or 
several  states,  being  a  minority,  can,  by  menacing  a  dissolution  of 
the  Union,  succeed  in  forcing  an  abandonment  of  great  measures, 
deemed  essential  to  the  interests  and  prosperity  of  the  whole,  the 
Union,  from  that  moment,  is  practically  gone.  It  may  linger  on, 
in  form  and  name,  but  its  vital  spirit  has  fled  for  ever!  Entertain- 
ing these  deliberate  opinions,  I  would  entreat  the  patriotic  people 
of  South  Carolina — the  land  of  Marion,  Sumpter,  and  Pickens — • 
of  Rutledge,  Laurens,  the  Pinckneys  and  Lowndes — of  living  and 


216  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

present  names,  wliich  I  would  mention  if  they  were  not  living 
or  present — to  pause,  solemnly  pause !  and  contemplate  the  fright- 
ful precipice  which  lies  directly  before  them !  To  retreat  may  be 
painful  and  mortifying  to  their  gallantry  and  pride,  but  it  is  to  re- 
treat to  the  Union,  to  safety,  and  to  those  brethren  with  whom,  or 
with  whose  ancestors,  they,  or  their  ancestors,  have  won,  on  fields 
of  glory,  imperishable  renown.  To  advance,  is  to  rush  on  certain 
and  inevitable  disgrace  and  destruction. 

*'  The  danger  to  our  Union  does  not  lie  on  the  side  of  persist- 
ence in  the  American  system,  but  on  that  of  its  abandonment.  If, 
as  I  have  supposed  and  believe,  the  inhabitants  of  all  north  and 
east  of  James  river,  and  all  west  of  the  mountains,  including 
Louisiana,  are  deeply  interested  in  the  preservation  of  that  system, 
would  they  be  reconciled  to  its  overthrow  ?  Can  it  be  expected 
that  two  thirds,  if  not  three  fourths,  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  would  consent  to  the  destruction  of  a  policy,  believed  to 
be  indispensably  necessary  to  their  prosperity? — when,  too,  the 
sacrifice  is  made  at  the  instance  of  a  single  interest,  which  they 
verily  believe  will  not  be  promoted  by  it?  In  estimating  the  de- 
gree of  peril  which  may  be  incident  to  two  opposite  courses  of 
human  policy,  the  statesman  would  be  short-sighled,  who  should 
content  himself  with  viewing  only  the  evils,  real  or  imaginary, 
which  belong  to  that  course  which  is  in  practical  operation.  He 
should  lift  himself  up  to  the  contemplation  of  those  greater  and 
more  certain  dangers  which  might  inevitably  attend  the  adoption 
of  the  alternative  course.  What  would  be  the  condition  of  this 
Union,  if  Pennsylvania  and  New  York,  those  mammoth  members 
of  our  confederacy,  were  firmly  persuaded  that  their  industry  was 
paralyzed,  and  their  prosperity  blighted,  by  the  enforcement  of  the 
British  colonial  system,  under  the  delusive  name  of  free  trade  ? 
They  are  now  tranquil  and  happy,  and  contented,  conscious  of 
their  welfare,  and  feeling  a  salutary  and  rapid  circulation  of  the 
products  of  home  mauufactures  and  home  industry,  throughout  all 
their  great  arteries.  But  let  that  be  checked — let  them  feel  that 
a  foreign  system  is  to  predominate,  and  the  sources  of  their  sub- 
sistence and  comfort  dried  up  ;  let  New  England  and  the  west, 
and  tlie  middle  states,  all  feel  that  they  too  are  the  victims  of  a 
mistaken  policy,  and  let  these  vast  portions  of  our  country  despair 
of  any  favorable  change,  and  then  indeed  we  might  tremble  for  the 
contiiuiance  and  safety  of  this  Union ! 

"  And  need  I  remind  you,  sir,  that  this  dereliction  of  the  duty 
of  protecting  our  domestic  industry,  and  abandonment  of  it  to  the 
fate  of  foreign  legislation,  would  be  directly  at  war  with  leading 
considerations  which  prompted  the  adoption  of  the  present  consti- 
tution ?  The  states  respectively  surrendered  to  the  general  gov- 
ernment  the  whole   power  of  laying  imposts  on   foreign  goods. 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  217 

They  stripped  themselves  of  all  power  to  protect  their  own  manu- 
factures, by  the  most  efficacious  means  of  encouragement — the 
imposition  of  duties  on  rival  foreign  fabrics.  Did  they  create  that 
great  trust,  did  they  voluntarily  subject  themselves  to  this  self- 
restriction,  that  the  power  should  remain  in  the  federal  government 
inactive,  unexecuted,  and  lifeless?  Mr.  Madison,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  government,  told  you  otherwise.  In  discussing 
at  that  early  period  this  very  subject,  he  declared  that  a  failure  to 
exercise  this  power  would  be  a  '•fraud''  upon  the  northern  states, 
to  which  may  now  be  added  the  middle  and  western  states. 

"  Gentlemen  are  greatly  deceived  as  to  the  hold  which  this  sys- 
tem has  in  the  affections  of  the  people  of  the  United  States.  They 
represent  that  it  is  the  policy  of  New  England,  and  that  she  is 
most  benefited  by  it.  If  there  be  any  part  of  this  Union  which  has 
been  most  steady,  most  unanimous,  and  most  determined  in  its 
support,  it  is  Pennsylvania.  Why  is  not  that  powerful  state 
attacked  ?  Why  pass  her  over,  and  aim  the  blow  at  New  Eng- 
land? New  England  came  reluctantly  into  the  policy.  In  1824, 
a  majority  of  her  delegation  was  opposed  to  it.  From  the  largest 
state  of  New  England  there  was  but  a  solitary  vote  in  favor  of  the 
bill.  That  enterprising  people  can  readily  accommodate  their 
industry  to  any  policy,  provided  it  be  settled.  They  supposed  this 
was  fixed,  and  they  submitted  to  the  decrees  of  government.  And 
the  progress  of  public  opinion  has  kept  pace  with  the  developments 
of  the  benefits  of  the  system.  Now,  all  New  England,  at  least  in 
this  house  (with  the  exception  of  one  small  still  voice),  is  in  favor 
of  the  system.  In  1824,  all  Maryland  was  against  it ;  now  the  ma- 
jority is  for  it.  Then,  Louisiana,  with  one  exception,  was  opposed 
to  it ;  now,  without  any  exception,  she  is  in  favor  of  it.  The 
march  of  public  sentiment  is  to  ihe  south.  Virginia  will  be  the 
next  convert ;  and  in  less  than  seven  years,  if  there  be  no  obsta- 
cles from  political  causes,  or  prejudices,  industriously  instilled,  the 
majority  of  eastern  Virginia  will  be,  as  the  majority  of  western 
Virginia  now  is,  in  favor  of  the  American  system.  North  Carolina 
will  follow  later,  but  not  less  certainly.  Eastern  Tennessee  is 
now  in  favor  of  the  system.  And,  finally,  its  doctrines  will  per- 
vade the  whole  Union,  and  the  wonder  will  be,  that  they  ever 

should  have  been  opposed. 

******** 

"  For  one,  I  am  delighted  to  see  the  condition  of  the  poor 
attracting  the  consideration  of  the  opponents  of  the  tariff.  It  is  for 
the  great  body  of  the  people,  and  especially  for  the  poor,  that  1 
have  ever  supported  the  American  system.  It  afTords  them  prof- 
itable employment,  and  supplies  the  means  of  comfortable  subsist- 
ence. It  secures  to  them,  certainly,  necessaries  of  life,  manufac- 
tured at  home  and  places  within  their  reach,  and  enables  them  to 
acquire  a  reasonable  share  of  foreign  luxuries  ;  while  the  system 


218  THE    PUOTECTIVE    POLICY. 

of  gentlemen  inomiscs  them  necessaries  made  in  foreign  countries, 
and  which  are  beyond  their  power,  and  denies  to  them  luxuries, 
which  they  would  possess  no  means  to  purchase.      *      *      # 

"  Let  us  then  adopt  the  measure  before  us,  which  will  benefit 
all  classes — the  farmer,  the  professional  man,  the  merchant,  the 
manufacturer,  the  mechanic — and  the  cotton-planter  more  than  all." 

During  the  recess  between  the  first  and  second  session  of  the 
twenty-second  Congress,  the  cloud  which  had  risen  in  the  south, 
threatening  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,  had  not  passed  over,  but 
seemed  waiting  to  discharge  its  contents  in  a  desolatino-  storm. 
The  resolution  which  Mr.  Clay  had  introduced  in  the  early  part 
of  the  first  session,  and  which  was  the  subject  of  such  protracted 
and  earnest  debate,  had  assumed  the  shape  of  a  bill,  passed  both 
houses,  and  became  a  law,  by  the  approval  of  the  executive,  the 
fourteenth  of  July,  since  called  the  tariff  of  1832.  It  was  made 
an  additional  element  of  the  fire  kindling  in  the  south  ;  and  before 
the  second  session  of  Congress  had  opened,  the  convention  of 
South  Carolina  had  passed  its  nullifying  ordinance,  which  took  its 
place  in  the  statute-book  as  a  part  of  fundamental  law ;  the  legis- 
lature had  assembled,  and,  in  hot  speed,  were  making  provisions 
for  the  conflict.  The  ordinance  of  nullification  was  passed  the 
24th  of  November,  and  signed  with  all  due  solemnity  by  James 
Hamilton,  jr.,  president,  and  by  one  hundred  and  forty  members, 
in  some  such  manner  as  theDeclaration  of  American  Independence 
was  ratified.  An  address  to  the  people  of  South  Carolina  went 
out  from  this  convention — also  an  address  to  the  people  of  the 
United  States — of  all  and  several  of  the  other  members  of  the 
confederacy.  AH  measures  necessary  for  a  state  of  perfect  inde- 
pendence were  taken,  by  acts  of  legislation  ;  an  oath  of  allegiance 
was  prescribed  to  all  officers,  civil,  military,  and  judicial ;  and 
preparations  were  made  for  sustaining  the  state  in  this  position  by 
force  of  arms !  The  whole  contingent  levies  amounted  to  twelve 
thousand  men. 

On  the  10th  of  December,  1832,  the  president  of  the  United 
States  issued  his  proclamation,  denouncing  this  movement  of  South 
Carolina  as  treason,  warning  the  people  of  that  state  of  the  con- 
sequences, and  calling  them  back  to  duty  and  obedience.  On  the 
20th  of  December,  ten  days  afterward.  Governor  Hayne,  of  South 
Carolina,  issued  a  counter  proclamation,  enjoining  obedience  to 
the  act  of  nullification. 

It  was  in  this  state  of  things,  that  the  second  session  of  the 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  219 

twenty-second  Congress  was  opened.  The  position  of  Mr.  Cal- 
houn at  this  moment,  as  the  leader — father  of  nullification — was 
peculiar.  Having  resigned  the  vice-presidency,  in  consequence 
of  his  feud  with  the  president,  he  was  again  in  the  senate  of  the 
United  States.  Though  the  recognised  leader  of  nullification,  it 
does  not  appear,  that  he  was  so  far  technically  implicated,  as  to 
constitute  a  ground  of  impeachment  or  indictment.   ' 

It  can  not  be  denied,  that  President  Jackson's  proclamation 
was  a  fine  opportunity — for  he  had  both  right  and  power  on  his 
side — to  humble,  perhaps  cripple  a  formidable  adversary,  with 
whom  he  had  recently  picked  a  quarrel.  But  the  effect  of  the 
proclamation  on  the  public  mind  evinced,  that  it  had  been  dictated 
more  by  personal  feelings,  than  by  that  moderation  and  considerate 
policy,  which  best  became  the  chief  magistrate  of  the  nation. 

In  a  private  letter  of  Mr.  Clay  to  Judge  Brooke,  dated  Wash- 
ington, December  12,  1832,  he  says  : — 

"You  ask,  what  is  to  be  done  with  nullification?  I  must 
refer  you  to  the  president's  proclamation.  One  short  week  pro- 
duced the  message  and  the  proclamation — the  former  ultra  on  the 
side  of  state-rights — the  latter  ultra  on  the  side  of  consolidation. 
How  they  are  to  be  reconciled,  I  must  leave  to  our  Virginia  friends. 
As  to  the  proclamation,  although  there  are  good  things  in  it,  espe- 
cially what  relates  to  the  judiciary,  there  are  some  entirely  too  ul- 
tra, for  me,  and  which  I  can  not  stomach.  A  proclamation  ought 
to  have  been  issued  weeks  ago  ;  but  I  think  it  should  have  been  a 
very  different  paper  from  the  present,  which,  I  apprehend,  will  ir- 
ritate, instead  of  allaying  excited  feeling.  Congress  has  not  been 
called  upon,  and  I  sincerely  hope  it  may  not  be  necessary  to  call 
upon  it,  in  this  unfortunate  affair." 

It  was  not  expected  of  General  Jackson,  that  he  would  recede ; 
but  it  was  sufficiently  manifest,  by  the  general  dissatisfaction  with 
this  rash  proceeding,  that  he  would  be  obliged  to  make  a  shift. 
While,  therefore,  he  maintained  the  appearance  of  occupying  firmly, 
and  with  resolute  purpose,  the  ground  of  the  proclamation,  he  was 
concocting,  and  preparing  to  have  introduced  into  the  house  of 
representatives,  a  new  tariff  bill,  for  the  total  destruction  of  the 
protective  policy!  If,  by  this  double  game,  he  should  not  be  able 
to  kill  two  birds  with  one  stone,  he  might  at  least  hope  to  kill  one, 
and  clip  the  wings  of  the  other.  While  the  South  Carolina  defi- 
ance of  federal  authority,  represented  in  the  person  of  Andrew 
Jackson,  was  an  additional  provocation  to  his  hatred  of  Mr.  Cal- 
houn, in  whom  was  represented  the  nullifying  power,  it  might  be 


220  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

some  gratification  to  have  scotched  that  snaice,  under  an  appear- 
ance of  brave  fight,  if,  after  having  done  it,  he  could  turn  round 
and  destroy  his  old  and  more  formidable  opponent.  It  is  mani- 
fest, that  these  two  cards  were  in  General  Jackson's  hand  ;  nor 
is  it  less  evident,  that  they  were  well  played,  though,  fortunately 
for  the  country,  the  game  did  not  entirely  succeed. 

Was  it  to  be  supposed,  that  Mr.  Clay,  observing  all  this,  and 
aware  of  his  position  and  his  responsibilities,  would  be  asleep, 
or  idle?  He  knew  very  well,  that  General  Jackson  was  fright- 
ened at  his  own  proclamation,  and  would  be  glad,  if  he  could,  with 
credit,  to  get  out  of  the  difiiculty ;  that  the  nation  was  averse  to 
such  a  severe  and  perilous  remedy,  as  a  resort  to  arms,  in  a  do- 
mestic controversy  ;  that  any  tolerable  alternative  proposed,  would 
be  more  acceptable  ;  that  General  Jackson  had  all  power  in  his 
hands  ;  and  that  the  new  tariff  bill,  emanating  from  that  quarter, 
in  the  garb  of  a  peace-ofFering,  without  the  offer  of  a  substitute, 
would  not  only  pass,  but  be  the  grave  of  the  protective  policy. 
It  was  no  longer  a  question,  in  such  circumstances,  whether  that 
policy  could  be  saved  entire  ;  it  was  impossible  ;  but,  whether  a 
part  of  it  could  be  saved,  and  the  principle  be  vindicated,  till  a 
more  auspicious  day  should  dawn  upon  the  country.  Such  was 
the  position,  such  the  peril  of  the  protective  policy,  at  that  mo- 
ment. 

There  was  another  difiiculty  to  encounter.  As  a  tariff  bill  is 
regarded  as  a  revenue  measure,  and  all  legislation  on  this  subject 
was  understood  as  required  by  the  constitution  to  originate  in  the 
house  of  representatives,  it  seemed  at  least  irregular  to  make  the 
first,  or  even  a  contemporaneous,  movement  in  the  senate.  But 
in  extraordinary  emergencies,  forms  are  sometimes  dispensed  with, 
by  common  consent ;  and  as  the  majority  of  each  branch  of  Con- 
gress was  yet  unwilling  to  sacrifice  the  protective  policy,  the  inde- 
pendent action  of  the  senate  might  perhaps  be  connived  at  by  the 
house,  and  afterward  be  adopted  as  its  own.  The  administration 
measure,  Mr.  Verplanck's  bill,  had  already  been  reported  to  the 
house,  and  was  in  progress,  when  Mr.  Clay,  February  11,  1S33, 
gave  notice  in  the  senate,  that  he  should  the  next  day  ask  leave  to 
introduce  a  bill  to  modify  the  various  acts  imposing  duties  on  im- 
ports. Mr.  Clay,  on  this  occasion,  opened  his  remarks  as  fol- 
lows : — 

"  I  yesterday,  sir,  gare  notice  that  I  should  ask  leave  to  intro- 
dace  a  bill  to  modify  the  various  acts  imposing  duties  on  imports. 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  221 

I  at  the  same  time  added,  that  I  should,  with  the  permission  of 
the  senate,  offer  an  explanation  of  the  principle  on  which  that  bill 
is  founded.  T  owe,  sir,  an  apology  to  the  senate  for  this  course 
of  action,  because,  although  stricdy  parliamentary,  it  is,  neverthe- 
less, out  of  the  usual  practice  of  this  body ;  but  it  is  a  course 
which  I  trust  that  the  senate  will  deem  to  be  justified  by  the  inter- 
esting nature  of  the  subject.  I  rise,  sir,  on  this  occasion,  actuated 
by  no  motives  of  a  private  nature,  by  no  personal  feelings,  and  for 
no  personal  objects  ;  but  exclusively  in  obedience  to  a  sense  of 
the  duty  which  I  owe  to  my  country.  I  trust,  therefore,  that  no 
one  will  anticipate  on  my  part  any  ambitious  display  of  such  hum- 
ble powers  as  I  may  possess.  It  is  sincerely  my  purpose  to  pre- 
sent a  plain,  unadorned,  and  naked  statement  of  facts  connected 
with  the  measure  which  I  shall  have  the  honor  to  propose,  and 
with  the  condition  of  the  country.  When  I  survey,  sir,  the  whole 
face  of  our  country,  I  behold  all  around  me  evidences  of  the  most 
gratifying  prosperity,  a  prospect  which  would  seem  to  be  without 
a  cloud  upon  it,  were  it  not  that  through  all  parts  of  the  country 
there  exist  great  dissensions  and  unhappy  distinctions,  which,  if 
they  can  possibly  be  relieved  and  reconciled  by  any  broad  scheme 
of  legislation  adapted  to  all  interests,  and  regarding  the  feelings  of 
all  sections,  ought  to  be  quieted  ;  and  leading  to  which  object  any 
measure  ought  to  be  well  received. 

"In  presenting  the  modification  of  the  tariff  laws,  which  I  am 
now  about  to  submit,  I  have  two  great  objects  in  view.  My  first 
object  looks  to  the  tariff.  I  am  compelled  to  express  the  opin- 
ion, formed  after  the  most  deliberate  reflection,  and  on  full  survey 
of  the  whole  country,  that,  whether  rightfully  or  wrongfully,  the 
tariff  stands  in  imminent  danger.  If  it  should  be  preserved  du- 
ring this  session,  it  must  fall  at  the  next  session.  By  what  cir- 
cumstances, and  through  what  causes,  has  arisen  the  necessity  for 
this  change  in  the  policy  of  our  country,  I  will  not  pretend  now 
to  elucidate.  Others  there  are,  who  may  differ  from  the  impres- 
sions which  my  mind  has  received  upon  this  point.  Owing,  how- 
ever, to  a  variety  of  concurrent  causes,  the  tariff,  as  it  now  exists, 
is  in  imminent  danger,  and  if  the  system  can  be  preserved  beyond 
the  next  session,  it  must  be  by  some  means  not  now  within  the 
reach  of  human  sagacity.  The  fall  of  that  policy,  sir,  would  be 
productive  of  consequences  calamitous  indeed.  When  I  look  to 
the  variety  of  interests  which  are  involved,  to  the  number  of  indi- 
viduals interested,  the  amount  of  capital  invested,  the  value  of  the 
buildings  erected,  and  the  whole  arrangement  of  the  business  for 
the  prosecution  of  the  various  branches  of  the  manufacturing  art, 
which  have  sprung  up  under  the  fostering  care  of  this  government, 
I  can  not  contemplate  any  evil  equal  to  the  sudden  overthrow  of 
all  those  interests.  History  can  produce  no  parallel  to  the  extent 
of  the  mischief  which  would  be  produced  by  such  a  disaster. 


222  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

The  repeal  of  the  edict  of  Nantes  itself  was  nothing  in  comparison 
with  it.  That  condemned  to  exile  and  brouglit  to  ruin  a  great 
number  of  persons.  The  most  respectable  portion  of  the  popu- 
lation of  France  was  condemned  to  exile  and  ruin  by  that  meas- 
ure. But,  in  my  opinion,  sir,  the  sudden  repeal  of  the  tariff  pol- 
icy would  bring  ruin  and  destruction  on  the  whole  people  of  this 
country.  There  is  no  evil,  in  my  opinion,  equal  to  the  conse- 
quences which  would  result  from  such  a  catastrophe." 

It  would  doubtless  be  unnessary  to  say,  that  the  measure  pro- 
posed by  Mr.  Clay  on  this  occasion,  has  since  been  known  as  the 
COMPROMISE  TARIFF  ACT  OF  1833.  He  saw,  that,  between  Gen. 
Jackson  on  the  one  hand,  and  South  Carolina  nullification  on  the 
other,  the  system  of  protective  policy,  as  established,  was  in  im- 
minent peril — that  it  was  in  danger  of  utter  annihilation.  What 
could  be  done  in  such  an  emergency?  The  agitations  of  the 
Missouri  question,  thirteen  years  previous,  which  seemed  to  give 
little  hope  for  peace  and  the  Union,  had  been  hushed  by  a  healing 
measure.  No  one  supposed,  when  only  a  year  before,  the  land 
question  was  thrust  upon  Mr.  Clay  for  the  purpose  of  embarras- 
sing him,  that  he  would  come  forth  from  the  ordeal  in  soundness 
and  vigor.  He  seemed  to  indulge  apprehensions  for  himself. 
But  the  countenance  of  his  opponents  was  covered  with  dismay, 
when  he  brought  in  his  report  and  bill.  It  was  impossible  to  as- 
sail it.  It  triumphed,  though  pending  at  this  very  moment,  and 
was  only  strangled  in  General  Jackson's  pocket,  by  robbing  the 
legislative  branch  of  the  government,  of  their  rights. 

But  there  were  difficulties  in  adjusting  this  compromise  tariff, 
which  seemed  above  any  human  power  to  surmount.  The  light- 
nings had  already  burst  from  the  stormy  cloud  in  the  south,  and 
the  thunders  were  heard  in  the  distance.  The  president  of  the 
United  States  seemed  not  reluctant  to  embrace  the  opportunity  to 
make  peace  with  the  angry  blood  he  had  stirred  up  by  his  pre- 
cipitancy and  his  too  earnest  endeavor  to  put  Mr.  Calhoun  in  a 
BAD  EMINENCE — where  traitors  are  put.  He  had  killed  him  po- 
litically. That  might  satisfy.  In  the  grave  of  the  protective  pol- 
icy, would  perchance  be  buried  its  earliest  advocate  and  constant 
defender.  What  objection  to  have  him  also  out  of  the  way? 
Not  that  the  policy  was  bad,  but  its  advocate  was  obnoxious. 
How  many  things  were  to  be  considered  in  devising  a  measure, 
that  would  pass  safely  through  such  an  ordeal !  How  could  a  cap- 
tive hope  to  run  a  gauntlet  under  a  thousand  uplifted  tomahawks. 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  223 

without  being  hit !  The  strong  and  serried  ranks  of  party  were 
to  be  broken  up  ;  friends  were  to  be  lost,  and  enemies  won  ;  all 
were  to  be  taken  by  surprise,  and  carried  by  surprise — even  the 
president  himself;  or  rather,  the  majority  were  to  be  put  in  such 
a  position,  by  the  suitableness  and  fairness  of  the  proposal,  that 
they  could  not  object  to  it ;  and  it  must  be  of  a  character,  too, 
from  which  the  executive  could  not  escape.  And  such  it  proved 
to  be. 

The  bill  was  denominated,  '*  An  act  to  modify  the  act  of  the  four- 
teenth of  July,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirty-two,  and  all 
other  acts  imposing  duties  on  imports,"  and  was  in  substance  as 
follows :  That,  On  the  31st  of  December,  1833,  all  ad-valorem 
duties  of  more  than  20  per  cent.,  shall  be  reduced  one  tenth  ;  on 
the  31st  of  December,  1835,  there  shall  be  another  reduction  of 
one  tenth  on  duties  of  the  same  class  ;  another  equal  reduction, 
on  the  same  class  and  same  principle,  the  31st  of  December, 
1837  ;  another  do.,  do.,  December  31,  1839  ;  on  the  31st  of  De- 
cember, 1841,  one  half  of  the  residue  of  such  excess,  to  be  taken 
off;  and  from  and  after  the  31st  of  June,  1842,  the  remaining 
half  of  such  excess  to  be  taken  off,  leaving  a  maximum  of  20 
per  cent.  ., 

Two  principles  of  great  practical  importance  were  introduced 
into  this  bill,  to  take  effect  from  and  after  the  31st  of  June,  1842, 
first  the  abolition  of  credit  for  duties  ;  and  next,  home  valuation., 
or  the  assessment  of  the  value  of  imports  at  the  ports  of  entry. 
By  the  first,  foreign  factors  would  be  prevented  from  flooding  and 
glutting  the  American  market  by  speculation,  without  being 
obliged  to  pay  duties  till  the  goods  were  sold.  This  evil  had 
proved  to  be  of  immense  magnitude.  By  the  second,  the  power 
of  assessing  value,  in  other  words  of  legislating  in  the  case,  as  to 
the  amount  of  duties,  would  be  taken  from  foreign  governments 
and  foreign  factors,  and  restored  to  the  rightful  authority,  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States.  When  imports  are  graduated  by 
the  export  value,  in  foreign  countries,  frauds,  on  an  immense 
scale,  are  practised,  first  by  the  operation  of  the  policy  of  foreign 
governments,  and  next,  by  false  invoices  and  perjury  of  foreign 
factors,  thereby  defrauding  the  American  government,  American 
manufacturers,  and  injuring  American  merchants. 

On  this  subject  of  home  valuation,  Mr.  Clay,  in  his  speech  in 
the  senate,  of  March  1,  1842,  on  a  general  project  of  national 
policy,  which  he  then  submitted,  says  :— 


224  THE    PROTECTIVE     POLICY. 

"  As  things  now  stand,  we  lay  the  duty,  but  foreigners  fix  the 
value  of  the  goods.  Give  me  but  the  power  of  fixing  the  value 
of  the  goods,  and  I  care  little,  in  comparison,  what  may  be  the 
rate  of  duty  you  impose.  It  is  evident  that  on  the  ad-valorem 
principle,  it  is  the  foreigner  who  virtually  fixes  the  actual  amount 
of  the  duty  paid.  It  is  the  foreigner  who,  by  fixing  that  value, 
virtually  legislates  for  us — and  that  in  a  case  where  his  interest  is 
directly  opposed  to  that  of  our  revenue.  I  say,  therefore,  that  in- 
dependently of  all  considerations  of  protection,  independently  of 
all  ends  or  motives  but  the  prevention  of  those  infamous  frauds 
which  have  been  the  disgrace  of  our  customhouse — frauds  in 
which  the  foreigner,  with  his  double  and  triple  and  quadruple  in- 
voices, ready  to  be  produced  as  circumstances  may  require,  fixes 
the  value  of  the  merchandise  taxed — every  consideration  of  na- 
tional dignity,  justice,  and  independence,  demands  the  substitution 
of  home  valuation  in  the  place  of  foreign." 

There  were  sundry  details  of  this  bill  in  qualifying  clauses,  ex- 
ceptions, contingencies,  special  regulations  for  specified  articles, 
within  the  range  of  the  leading  rules  of  the  act  for  the  reduction 
of  duties ;  and  the  door  was  left  open  for  alterations  and  amend- 
ments of  the  act  in  particular  items,  not  inconsistent  with  the  im- 
plied faith  of  the  measure,  and  in  the  contingency  either  of  excess 
or  deficiencv  of  revenue — one  of  the  recognised  and  avowed  ob- 
jects  of  the  bill,  on  the  general  principle,  being  to  raise  such  a 
revenue  as  might  be  necessary  to  an  economical  administration  of 
the  government. 

But  Mr.  Clay  himself  had  occasion  to  explain  this  bill  as  late 
as  1842,  when  he  introduced  his  resolutions  of  general  policy, 
above  referred  to,  as  follows  : — 

'*  But  it  is  necessary  now  to  consider  what  the  principles  of  the 
compromise  act  really  are. 

"  The  first  principle  is,  that  there  should  be  a  fixed  rate  of  ad- 
valorem  duty,  and  discriminations  below  it. 

"  Second,  that  the  excess  of  duty  beyond  twenty  per  centum 
should,  by  a  gradual  process,  commencing  on  the  thirty-first  of 
December,  1833,  be  reduced,  so  that  by  the  thirtieth  of  June, 
1842,  it  should  be  brought  down  to  twenty  per  centum. 

"  Third,  that  after  that  day,  sucli  duties  should  he  laid  for  the 
purpose  of  raising  such  revenue  as  might  be  necessary  for  an  eco- 
nomical administration  of  the  government ;  consequently  exclu- 
ding all  resort  to  internal  taxation,  or  to  the  proceeds  of  the  pub- 
lic lands.  For,  contemporaneously  with  the  pendency  of  the  com- 
promise act,  a  bill  was  pending  for  the  distribution  of  those  pro- 
ceeds. 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  225 

"  Fourth,  that  after  the  thirtieth  of  June,  1842,  all  duties 
should  be  paid  in  ready  nnoney,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  credits. 

"  Fifth,  that,  after  the  same  day,  the  assessment  of  the  value  of 
all  imports  should  be  made  at  home  and  not  abroad. 

"  Sixth,  that  after  the  same  day,  a  list  of.  articles  specified  and 
enumerated  in  the  act,  should  be  admitted  free  of  duty,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  manufacturing  interest. 

"  These  are  the  principles,  and  all  the  principles  of  the  com- 
promise act.  An  impression  has  been  taken  up  most  erroneously, 
that  the  rate  of  duty  was  never  to  exceed  twenty  per  centum. 
There  is  no  such  limitation  in  the  act.  I  admit  that,  at  the  time 
of  the  passage  of  the  act,  a  hope  was  entertained  that  a  rate  of 
duty  not  exceeding  twenty  per  centum  would  supply  an  adequate 
revenue  to  an  economical  administration  of  the  government.  Then 
we  were  threatened  with  that  overflow  of  revenue  with  which  the 
treasury  was  subsequently  inundated ;  and  the  difficulty  was  to 
find  articles  which  should  be  liberated  from  duty  and  thrown  into 
the  free  class.  Hence,  wines,  silks,  and  other  luxuries,  were  ren- 
dered free.  But  neither  the  act,  nor  any  part  of  the  act,  when 
fairly  interpreted,  limits  Congress  to  the  iron  rule  of  adhering  for 
ever,  and  under  all  circumstances,  to  a  fixed  and  unalterable  rate 
of  twenty-per-centum  duty." 

It  would  be  impossible  for  any  one  to  examine,  if  he  could  un- 
derstand, this  bill,  in  all  its  relations  and  bearings  to  so  many  inter- 
.  ests,  sectional  and  other,  and  in  its  adaptation  to  the  critical  con- 
dition of  the  country  at  that  moment,  and  not  be  struck  with 
admiration,  not  less  of  the  consummate  statesmanship  which  it 
demonstrates,  than  of  its  impartial  kindness  toward  all  parties,  and 
of  that  comprehensive,  lofty,  disinterested  patriotism,  which  Mr. 
Clay  has  so  often  displayed  in  great  and  critical  emergencies — 
which  never  fails  him  when  his  country  calls. 

The  very  proposal  of  the  bill  was  a  triumph,  which  everybody 
saw,  and  which  its  author  no  doubt  felt  with  satisfaction.  But  it 
had  its  difficulties  to  encounter.  Friends  were  disturbed,  and  in 
danger  of  going  off  into  opposition  to  it.  Some  did.  But  what 
was  lost  on  that  side,  was  more  than  made  up  by  the  yielding  of 
opponents.  The  various,  and  somewhat  complicated  aspects  of 
the  measure,  burst  upon  the  senate,  upon  Congress,  upon  the 
country,  like  the  sudden  advent  of  a  stranger,  whose  character, 
standing,  and  mien,  claimed  universal  attention  and  respect. 
There  were  many  who  could  not  comprehend  it,  some  were  vexed, 
all  admired.  Mr.  Verplanck's  bill,  put  forward,  if  not  at  the  insti- 
gation, at  least  with  the  sanction  of  the  president,  and  which  struck. 
Vol.  IL— 15 


226  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

at  the  roots  of  the  protective  policy,  having  been  for  six  weeks 
under  consideration  in  the  house — it  was  reported  the  28th  of 
December — could  not  escape  comparison  with  that  proposed  by- 
Mr.  Clay,  and  was  instantly  lowered  to  the  condition  of  being  in 
poor  request.  It  was  dead  the  moment  this  new-born  child  began 
to  breathe. 

But,  to  the  difficulties.  They  were  not  inconsiderable.  All 
had  been  anticipated,  and  all,  as  far  as  possible,  were  provided 
against  in  the  bill.  But  the  dissatisfactions  must  have  vent,  and 
the  objections  must  be  answered.  When  Mr.  Clay  introduced  the 
bill,  before  objections  had  been  heard,  his  chief  duty  was  to  ex- 
plain it.     On  that  occasion  he  said  : — 

"  What,  sir,  are  the  complaints  which  unhappily  divide  the  peo- 
ple of  this  great  country?  On  the  one  hand  it  is  said,  by  those 
who  are  opposed  to  the  tariff,  that  it  unjustly  taxes  a  portion  of  the 
people,  and  paralyzes  their  industry ;  that  it  is  to  be  a  perpetual 
operation;  that  there  is  to  be  no  end  to  the  system;  which,  right 
or  wrong,  is  to  be  urged  to  their  inevitable  ruin.  And  what  is  the 
just  complaint,  on  the  other  hand,  of  those  who  support  the  tariff? 
It  is,  that  the  policy  of  the  government  is  vacillating  and  uncer- 
tain, and  that  there  is  no  stability  in  our  legislation.  Before  one 
set  of  books  is  fairly  opened,  it  becomes  necessary  to  close  them, 
and  to  open  a  new  set.  Before  a  law  can  be  tested  by  experiment, 
another  is  passed.  Before  the  present  law  has  gone  into  opera- 
tion— before  it  is  yet  nine  months  old — passed,  as  it  was,  under 
circumstances  of  extraordinary  deliberation,  the  fruit  of  nine 
months'  labor — before  we  know  anything  of  its  experimental  ef- 
fects, and  even  before  it  commences  its  operations — we  are  re- 
quired to  repeal  it.  On  one  side  we  are  urged  to  repeal  a  system 
which  is  fraught  wuh  ruin ;  on  the  other  side,  the  check  now  im- 
posed on  enterprise,  and  the  state  of  alarm  in  which  the  public 
mind  has  been  thrown,  renders  all  prudent  men  desirous,  looking 
ahead  a  litde  way,  to  adopt  a  state  of  things,  on  the  stability  of 
which  they  may  have  reason  to  count.  Such  is  the  state  of  feeling 
on  the  one  side  and  on  the  other.  I  am  anxious  to  find  out  some 
principle  of  mutual  accommodation,  to  satisfy,  as  far  as  practica- 
ble, both  parties — to  increase  the  stability  of  our  legislation,  and 
at  some  distant  day — but  not  too  distant — when  we  take  into  view 
the  magnitude  of  the  interests  which  are  involved,  to  bring  down 
the  rate  of  duties  to  that  revenue  standard,  for  which  our  opponents 
have  so  long  contended.  The  basis  on  which  I  wish  to  found  this 
modification,  is  one  of  time ;  and  the  several  parts  of  the  bill  to 
which  I  am  about  to  call  the  attention  of  the  senate,  are  founded 
on  this  basis.  I  propose  to  give  protection  to  our  manufactured 
articles,  adequate  protection  for  a  length  of  time,  which,  compared 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  227 

with  the  length  of  human  life,  is  very  long,  but  which  is  short,  in 
proportion  to  the  legitimate  discretion  of  every  wise  and  parental 
system  of  government ;  securing  the  stability  of  legislation,  and 
allowing  time  for  a  gradual  reduction,  on  one  side  :  and  on  the 
other,  proposing  to  reduce  the  duties  to  that  revenue  standard,  for 
which  the  opponents  of  the  system  have  so  long  contended." 

The  difficulties  of  Mr.  Clay's  position,  in  the  proposal  of  the 
compromise  bill,  were  numerous  and  peculiar.  In  the  first  place, 
it  was  a  great  responsibility  to  step  forward  boldly  and  alone,  with 
a  measure  in  hand,  to  plant  himself  in  the  centre  of  such  conflict- 
ing elements,  to  oppose  their  rage,  and  allay  the  storm.  There 
was  the  president  on  the  one  hand,  who  had  lately  killed  the  bank, 
suppressed  the  land  bill,  and  who,  at  this  moment,  was  meditating 
the  act  of  seizing  on  the  public  purse.  His  hostility  to  the  tariff 
was  fully  revealed ;  and  his  own  measure  to  destroy  protection  was 
already  in  the  house  of  representatives,  in  the  form  of  a  bill  making 
progress,  with  every  prospect  of  success,  if  not  that  session,  at  the 
next.  His  proclamation  to  suppress  nullification  by  force  of  arms, 
if  necessary,  was  before  the  world. 

Not  the  least  of  the  difliculties  was  to  bring  forward  a  proposal 
that  should  satisfy  the  advocates  of  protection,  if  it  aimed  at  the 
same  time  to  disarm  the  hostile  attitude  of  the  president  toward 
that  policy,  and  the  discontents  of  the  south.  The  project  seemed 
a  miracle,  and  that  wing  of  both  houses  of  Congress,  which  repre-' 
sented  the  manufacturing  districts  of  the  country,  was  predisposed 
to  be  alarmed,  and  to  take  a  stand  against  it  at  once,  as  necessarily 
wrong,  and  destructive  of  the  interests  of  their  constituents. 

In  the  midst  of  these  warring  elements,  Mr.  Clay  was  obliged  to 
take  up  his  stand,  first,  to  turn  away  their  blows  from  each  other, 
and  next,  as  far  as  possible,  to  ward  them  from  lighting  down  on 
his  own  head.  It  was  inevitably  a  risk  to  himself,  while  it  pre- 
sented only  a  slender  hope  of  effecting  a  conciliation. 

The  following  are  some  of  Mr.  Clay's  remarks  on  the  different 
modes  of  protection  : — 

"  First,  the  absolute  prohibition  of  rival  foreign  articles  which 
is  totally  unattempted  by  the  bill  ;  but  it  is  competent  to  the  wis- 
dom of  the  government  to  exert  the  power  whenever  they  wish. 
Second,  the  imposition  of  duties  in  such  a  manner  as  to  have  no 
reference  to  any  object  but  revenue.  When  we  had  a  large  public 
debt  in  1S16,  the  duties  yielded  thirty-seven  millions,  and  paid  so 
much  more  of  the  debt,  and  subsequently  they  yielded  but  eight 
or  ten  millions,  and  paid  so  much  less  of  the  debt.     Sometimes  we 


228  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

have  to  trench  on  the  sinking  fund.  Now  we  have  no  public  debt 
to  absorb  the  surplus  revenue,  and  no  motive  for  continuing  the 
duties.  No  man  can  look  at  the  condition  of  the  country,  and  say 
that  we  can  carry  on  this  system  with  accumulating  revenue,  and 
no  practical  way  of  expending  it.  The  third  mode  was  attempted 
last  session,  in  a  resolution  which  I  had  the  honor  to  submit  last 
year,  and  which  in  fact  ultimately  formed  the  basis  of  the  act  which 
finally  passed  both  houses.  This  was  to  raise  as  much  revenue 
as  was  wanted  for  the  use  of  the  government,  and  no  more,  but  to 
raise  it  from  the  protected,  and  not  from  the  unprotected  articles. 
I  will  say,  that  1  regret  most  deeply  that  the  greater  part  of  the 
country  will  not  suffer  this  principle  to  prevail.  It  ought  to  prevail ; 
and  the  day,  in  my  opinion,  will  come,  when  it  will  be  adopted  as 
the  permanent  policy  of  the  country.  Shall  we  legislate  for  our 
own  wants  or  those  of  a  foreign  country"?  To  protect  our  own 
interests  in  opposition  to  foreign  legislation  was  the  basis  of  this 
system.  The  fourth  mode  in  which  protection  can  be  afforded  to 
domestic  industry,  is  to  admit  free  of  duty  every  article  which  aided 
the  operations  of  the  manufacturers.  These  are  the  four  modes 
for  protecting  our  industry;  and  to  those  who  say  that  the  bill 
abandons  the  power  of  protection,  I  reply,  that  it  does  not  touch 
that  power;  and  that  the  fourth  mode,  so  far  from  being  abandoned, 
is  extended  and  upheld  by  the  bill.  The  most  that  can  be  ob- 
jected to  the  bill  by  those  with  whom  I  co-operate  to  support  the 
protective  system,  is,  that,  in  consideration  of  nine  and  a  half  years 
of  peace,  certainty,  and  stability,  the  manufacturers  relinquished 
some  advantages  which  they  now  enjoy.  What  is  the  principle 
which  has  always  been  contended  for  in  this  and  in  the  other 
house?  After  the  accumulation  of  capital  and  skill,  the  manufac- 
turers will  stand  alone,  unaided  by  the  government,  in  competition 
with  the  imported  articles  from  any  quarter.  Now  give  us  time; 
cease  all  Huctuations  and  agitations,  for  nine  years,  and  the  manu- 
facturers in  every  branch  will  sustain  themselves  against  foreign 
competition.  If  we  can  see  our  way  clearly  for  nine  years  to 
come,  we  can  safely  leave  to  posterity  to  provide  for  the  rest.  If 
the  tariff  be  overthrown,  as  may  be  its  fate  next  session,  the  coun- 
try will  be  plunged  into  extreme  distress  and  agitation.  I  want 
harmony.  I  wish  to  see  the  restoration  of  those  ties  which  have 
carried  us  triumphantly  through  two  wars.  I  delight  not  in  this 
perpetual  turmoil.  Let  us  have  peace,  and  become  once  more 
united  as  a  band  of  brothers.  *  *  *  The  confederacy  is  an 
excellent  contrivance,  but  it  must  be  managed  with  delicacy  and 
skill.  There  are  an  infinite  variety  of  prejudices  and  local  inter- 
ests to  be  regarded,  but  all  should  be  made  to  yield  to  the  Union." 
Again  :  "  If  the  system  proposed  can  not  be  continued,  let  us  try 
some  intermediate  system,  before  we  think  of  any  other  dreadful  al- 
ternative.    Sir,  it  will  be  said,  on  the  other  hand — for  the  objections 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  229 

are  made  by  the  friends  of  protection,  principally — that  the  time  is 
too  long ;  that  the  intermediate  reductions  are  too  inconsiderable, 
and  that  there  is  no  guaranty  that,  at  the  end  of  the  time  stipulated, 
the  reduction  proposed  would  be  allowed  to  take  effect.  In  the 
first  place  should  be  recollected  the  diversified  interests  of  the  coun- 
try ;  the  measures  of  the  government  which  preceded  the  establish- 
ment of  manufactures  ;  the  public  faith  in  some  degree  pledged  for 
their  security ;  and  the  ruin  in  which  rash  and  hasty  legislation  would 
involve  them,  I  will  not  dispute  about  terms.  It  would  not,  in  a 
court  of  justice,  be  maintained  that  the  public  faith  is  pledged  for 
the  protection  of  manufactures  ;  but  there  are  other  pledges  which 
men  of  honor  are  bound  by,  besides  those  of  which  the  law  can 
take  coo-nizance." 

It  is  clear  that  the  compromise  was  no  otherwise  unalterable, 
than  that,  in  common  good  faith,  it  should  not  be  essentially  dis- 
turbed within  its  own  limits  as  to  time,  except  for  cause  which  might 
gain  the  assent  of  the  party  that  would  naturally  object.  The  will 
and  discretion  of  the  legislature  would  of  course  remain  as  free  as 
ever,  on  this  subject,  as  well  as  on  others.  But  men  of  honor 
would  not  violate  an  understanding,  efi'ected  by  a  mutual  concession 
of  dissentients,  whereby  a  controversy,  alike  dangerous  to  all  par- 
ties, had  been  adjusted.  No  doubt  there  were  a  great  deal  of  faith 
and  weighty  consequent  moral  obligations,  embodied  in  the  com- 
promise ;  but  its  own  terms  prescribed  the  modes  in  which,  and 
specified  the  contingencies  on  which,  a  most  satisfactory  freedom 
might  be  exercised.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  this  understanding  was 
afterward  broken,  and  that  attempts  were  made  to  disappoint  it  ut- 
terly— not,  however,  by  Mr.  Clay  or  his  friends.  It  was  broken 
instantly  by  the  president,  in  withholding  the  land  bill,  and  return- 
ing it  with  his  objections  to  the  next  Congress.  The  provisions 
of  that  bill  were  a  part  of  the  understanding — an  essential  part, 
without  which  the  compromise  could  not  be  fairly  sustained  toward 
all  parties  ;  and  if  there  had  been  any  doubt  of  its  receiving  the 
sanction  of  the  president,  who  had  himself  in  substance  recom- 
mended it,  it  would  have  been  incorporated  with  the  compromise 
act,  and  passed.  During  its  entire  term,  it  was  the  subject  of  con- 
stant attack,  and  was  materially  impaired,  in  its  bearings  on  protec- 
tion, to  abate  it,  by  the  agents  in  whose  hands  its  administration  was 
intrusted.  The  beneficence  of  the  measure,  therefore,  was  in  a 
great  measure  defeated,  for  want  of  good  faith  in  the  parties  to  the 
arrangement. 

But  it  was  impossible  to  shield  the  great  interests  of  the  country 


230  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

against  the  potent  assaults  made  upon  them  by  the  administration 
of  the  oovernment,  for  a  protracted  period,  in  the  demolition  of  the 
currency  system,  in  the  suppression  of  the  land  bill,  in  the  removal 
of  the  deposites,  in  such  unscrupulous  violations  of  the  compromise 
law,  and  in  various  other  like  modes  of  action  in  the  federal  author- 
ities. A  man,  in  the  position  of  Mr.  Clay,  all  this  while,  might 
risk,  as  he  often  did — might  even  sacrifice  himself,  as  he  was  al- 
ways ready  to  do — but  he  could  not  save  the  country.  The  over- 
whelming waters  had  burst  all  barriers,  and  must  spread  themselves 
out,  to  be  absorbed  in  the  earth,  in  the  sea,  and  in  the  air. 

But  the  principle  of  protection  was  rescued  by  the  compromise, 
to  be  reincorporated,  as  it  finally  was,  in  the  tariff  act  of  1S42.  It 
is  no  less  true,  that  a  degree  of  protection,  adequate  for  the  most 
important  interests  of  the  country,  was  secured  by  the  compromise 
act,  if  it  had  been  faithfully  carried  out,  and  if  hostile  measures, 
such  as  those  mentioned  above,  and  others,  had  not  been  intro- 
duced, to  circumvent  its  beneficent  purposes — beneficent  to  the  full 
extent  that  was  practicable  in  existing  circumstances.  He  who 
prevents  an  overwhelming  flood  of  evil,  of  calamity,  impending 
the  community,  is  no  less  a  public  benefactor,  than  he  who  secures 
the  same  amount  of  positive  good — he  does,  in  fact,  by  that  very 
act,  secure  positive  good,  that  was  threatened  with  annihilation. 

For  those  who  contended,  that  protection  was  abandoned  by  the 
compromise  bill,  it  was  sufficient  to  reply,  that  they  could  not  pos- 
sibly maintain,  that  it  was  more  than  suspended.  The  power  was 
in  the  constitution,  as  none  could  deny.  The  history  of  that  in- 
strument shows,  that  protection  was  the  chief  object  of  its  adoption. 
If  there  were  sufficient  reasons  for  suspending  the  use  of  that  power 
for  a  season,  no  reasonable  man  could  say,  like  Mr.  Secretary  Ta- 
ney, in  the  removal  of  the  deposites,  that,  having  the  power,  they 
were  bound  to  "ea-ercwe"  it.  Every  power  of  the  constitution  is 
conferred  to  be  used,  or  not  used,  at  discretion,  and  some  of  them 
have  lain  dormant  to  this  day.  But  no  one,  for  that  reason,  can 
truly  say,  they  are  not  there,  or  that  they  may  not  be  used  when 
occasion  requires. 

But  protection  was  not  abandoned  by  the  compromise,  as  the 
terms  of  the  law  demonstrate.  The  scale  of  diminishing  duties 
was  designed  for  protection,  present  and  future — present,  in  that 
the  duties  were  not  to  be  reduced  at  once,  without  some  time  to 
prepare  for  it ;  and  future,  in  that  the  reduction  was  to  be  gradual, 
and  therefore  easy,  and  therefore  tolerable,  and  therefore  it  was 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  231 

protection.  As  a  compromise,  which  supposes  mutual  concession 
and  sacrifice,  all  that  might  be  desired  by  either  party,  could  not 
be  expected.  The  recognition  of  the  principle  of  protection  was 
stamped  on  every  feature  of  the  bill,  and  pervaded  its  structure. 
It  was  hoped  it  would  afford  sufficient  protection— and  there  is 
reason  to  suppose  that  this  hope  would  have  been  very  satisfacto- 
rily realized,  if  the  law  had  not  been  undermined  and  violated  in 
the  manner  already  noticed.  Who  can  provide  against  vice  of 
administration,  when  the  executive  power  is  absolute,  and  will  not 
respect  either  law  or  principle  ? 

Mr.  Clay  confessed,  that  the  attitude  taken  by  South  Carolina, 
in  her  nullifying  ordinance,  had  made  him  pause,  and  that  he  had 
"  felt  a  disposition  to  hurl  defiance  back  again,  and  to  impress  upon 
her  the  necessity  of  the  performance  of  her  duty  as  a  member  of 
the  Union."  But  more  recent  intelligence  had  softened  this  feel- 
ing. The  first  of  February  had  passed,  and  the  execution  of  her 
ordinance  had  been  postponed  to  the  fourth  of  March,  and  he  did 
not  doubt  that  it  would  be  indefinitely  postponed.  Her  hostile 
array  had  already  melted  down  into  the  declaration  of  a  purpose 
to  try  an  experiment  in  the  courts  of  law,  as  Ohio  and  Virginia 
had  done  before,  and  both  had  failed.  It  was  true,  that  South  Car- 
olina was  most  offensive  in  the  mode  she  had  chosen  to  adopt. 

But  Mr.  Clay  had  another  and  very  weighty  reason  for  acting  on 
this  measure  without  delay  :  "  I  would  repeat,"  he  said,  "  that,  un- 
der all  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  the  condition  of  South  Car- 
olina is  only  one  of  the  elements  of  a  combination,  the  whole  of 
which,  together,  constitutes  a  motive  of  action,  which  renders  it 
expedient  to  resort,  during  the  present  session  of  Congress,  to 
some  measure  in  order  to  quiet  and  tranquilize  the  country." 
This  "  combination,"  for  the  utter  subversion  of  the  protective 
policy,  has  already  been  noticed. 

In  the  conclusion  of  his  speech  on  the  introduction  of  the  bill, 
Mr.  Clay  said  : — 

"  South  Carolina  must  perceive  the  embarrassments  of  her  sit- 
uation. She  must  be  desirous — it  is  unnatural  to  suppose  that  she 
is  not — to  remain  in  the  Union.  What !  a  state  whose  heroes  in 
its  gallant  ancestry  fought  so  many  glorious  batdes  along  with  the 
other  states  of  this  Union — a  state  with  which  this  confederacy  is 
linked  by  bonds  of  such  a  powerful  character !  I  have  sometimes 
fancied  what  would  be  her  condition  if  she  goes  out  of  this  Union  ; 
if  her  five  hundred  thousand  people  should  at  once  be  thrown  upon 
their  own  resources.  She  is  out  of  the  Union.  What  is  the  conse- 
quence ?    She  is  an  independent  power.    What  then  does  she  do  ? 


232  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

She  must  have  armies  and  fleets,  and  an  expensive  government ; 
have  foreign  missions ;  she  must  raise  taxes  ;  enact  this  very  tariff, 
which  has  driven  her  out  of  the  Union,  in  order  to  enable  her  to 
raise  money,  and  to  sustain  the  attitude  of  an  independent  power. 
If  she  should  have  no  force,  no  navy  to  protect  her,  she  would  be 
exposed  to  piratical  incursions.  Their  neighbor,  St.  Domingo, 
might  pour  dou'n  a  horde  of  pirates  on  her  borders,  and  desolate 
her  plantations.  She  must  have  her  embassies  ;  therefore  must 
she  have  a  revenue.  And,  let  me  tell  you,  there  is  another  conse- 
quence, an  inevitable  one  :  she  has  a  certain  description  of  persons 
recognised  as  property  south  of  the  Potomac,  and  west  of  the 
Mississippi,  which  would  be  no  longer  recognised  as  such,  except 
within  their  own  limits.  This  species  of  property  would  sink  to 
one  half  of  its  present  value,  for  it  is  Louisiana  and  the  southwestern 

states  which  are  her  great  market. 

******* 

"  If  there  be  any  who  want  civil  war,  who  want  to  see  the  blood 
of  any  portion  of  our  countrymen  spilt,  I  am  not  one  of  them. 
I  wish  to  see  war  of  no  kind  ;  but,  above  all,  I  do  not  desire  to 
see  a  civil  war.  When  war  begins,  whether  civil  or  foreign,  no 
human  sight  is  competent  to  foresee  when,  or  how,  or  where  it  is 
to  terminate.  But  when  a  civil  war  shall  be  lighted  up  in  the  bo- 
som of  our  own  happy  land,  and  armies  are  marching,  and  com- 
manders are  winning  their  victories,  and  fleets  are  in  motion  on 
our  coast,  tell  me,  if  you  can,  tell  me,  if  any  human  being  can 
tell  its  duration?  God  alone  knows  where  such  a  war  would  end. 
In  what  a  state  will  our  institutions  be  left  ?  In  what  state  our  lib- 
erties ?      I  want  no  war  ;  above  all,  no  war  at  home. 

"  Sir,  I  repeat,  that  I  think  South  Carolina  has  been  rash,  in- 
temperate, and  greatly  in  the  wrong ;  but  I  do  not  want  to  disgrace 
her,  nor  any  other  member  of  this  Union.  No  :  I  do  not  desire 
to  see  the  lustre  of  one  sing-le  star  dimmed,  of  that  o;lorious  con- 
federacy  which  constitutes  our  political  sun  ;  still  less  do  I  wish  to 
see  it  blotted  out,  and  its  light  obliterated  for  ever.  Has  not  the 
state  of  South  Carolina  been  one  of  the  members  of  this  Union 
in  '  days  that  tried  men's  souls  ?'  Have  not  her  ancestors  fought 
alongside  our  ancestors?  Have  we  not,  conjointly,  won  together 
many  a  glorious  battle?  If  we  had  to  go  into  a  civil  war  with 
such  a  state,  how  would  it  terminate  ?  Whenever  it  should  have 
terminated,  what  would  be  her  condition  ?  If  she  should  ever 
return  to  the  Union,  what  would  be  the  condition  of  her  feelings 
and  affections  ?  what  the  state  of  the  heart  of  her  people  ?  She 
has  been  with  us  before,  when  her  ancestors  mingled  in  the  throng 
of  battle,  and  as  I  hope  our  posterity  will  mingle  with  hers,  for  ages 
and  centuries  to  come,  in  the  united  defence  of  liberty,  and  for  the 
honor  and  glory  of  the  Union.  I  do  not  wish  to  see  her  degraded 
or  defaced  as  a  member  of  this  confederacy. 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  233 

"  In  conclusion,  allow  me  to  entreat  and  implore  each  individual 
member  of  this  body  to  bring  into  the  consideration  of  this  meas- 
ure, which  I  have  had  the  honor  of  proposing,  the  same  love  of 
country  which,  if  I  know  myself,  has  actuated  me,  and  the  same 
desire  of  restoring  harmony  to  the  Union,  which  has  prompted  this 
effort.  If  we  can  forget  for  a  moment — but  that  would  be  asking 
too  much  of  human  nature — if  we  could  suppress,  for  one  moment, 
party  feelings  and  party  causes — and,  as  I  stand  here  before  my 
God,  I  declare  I  have  looked  beyond  these  considerations,  and 
regarded  only  the  vast  interests  of  this  united  people — I  should 
hope,  that  under  such  feelings,  and  wdth  such  dispositions,  we  may 
advantageously  proceed  to  the  consideration  of  this  bill,  and  heal, 
before  they  are  yet  bleeding,  the  wounds  of  our  distracted  country." 

The  following  extract  from  a  private  letter  of  Mr.  Clay  to  Judge 
Brooke,  of  February  14th,  1833,  is  applicable  here: — 

"  I  had  foreborne  to  communicate  to  you  the  plan  6f  accommo- 
dation which  I  intended  to  submit,  because,  although  I  had  long 
since  settled  in  my  mind  the  principle  of  the  plan,  I  had  not  finally 
arranged  the  details.  That  work  was  only  completed  a  kw  days 
ago.  You  will  see  in  the  papers,  that  I  have  presented  it  to  the 
senate  in  the  shape  of  a  bill.  I  was  fully  aware  of  all  the  personal 
consequences,  and  personal  risks,  to  which  I  exposed  myself. 
The  measure  has  been  well  received.  Still,  every  contrivance 
will  be  resorted  to  by  the  Van  Buren  men,  and  by  some  of  the 
administration  party,  to  frustrate  or  defeat  the  project.  That,  you 
know,  t  anticipated.  What  will  be  the  final  issue  of  the  plan,  I 
can  not  certainly  say.     I  hope  for  success." 

That  there  should  have  been  loss  and  gain  in  the  compromise, 
resulted  from  the  nature  of  the  measure  :  it  was  a  compromise. 
But  the  design  and  tendency  of  the  act,  by  a  faithful  execution, 
was,  that  this  loss  and  gain  should  be  distributed  among  citizens 
of  the  same  great  republic.  It  was  based  on  a  principle  that  lies 
at  the  foundation  of  the  government  and  institutions  of  the  country, 
viz.,  mutual  concession  for  general  good — a  principle,  "which,"  as 
Mr.  Clay  said,  on  that  occasion,  "  gave  birth  to  the  constitution 
itself,  and  which  has  continued  to  regulate  us  in  our  onward  march, 
and  conducted  the  nation  to  glory  and  renown.  If  the  measure 
should  be  carried  by  the  common  consent  of  both  parties,  we  shall 
have  all  security  ;  history  will  faithfully  record  the  transaction  ; 
narrate  under  what  circumstances  the  bill  passed  ;  that  it  was  a 
pacifying  measure  ;  that  it  was  as  oil  poured  from  the  vessel  of  the 
Union,  to  restore  peace  and  harmony  to  the  country." 


234  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 


tTT  A   T-^mTiTJ      T"V 


THE     COMPROMISE     TARIFF. 


Mr.  Clay's  Reply  to  Objections. — The  Perilous  Position  of  the  Protective  Policy 
at  the  Moment. — Triumph  of  the  Compromise. — Its  Immediate  Efl'ect. — The 
Compromise  Act  not  carried  out  by  General  Jackson. — Partially  Defeated  by 
Stransling  the  Land  Bill. — Mr.  Clay's  later  Statements  on  the  Subject. — His 
Reply  to  Mr.  Calhoun,  in  1840.— The  Grand  Result.— Hon.  John  M.  Clayton's 
Account  of  the  Compromise  Debate. — Mr.  Dallas's  Motion  in  the  Senate,  and 
Mr.  Polk's  Statement  in  Tennessee. — Letter  from  Mr.  Clay  to  the  Hon.  John 
M.  Clayton. — Mr.  Clay,  and  Mr.  Randolph. 

On  the  25th  of  February,  1833,  about  two  weeks  after  the  in- 
troduction of  the  compromise  tariff  bill,  Mr.  Clay  rose  to  reply  to 
some  objections  it  had  encountered.  Inasmuch  as  there  were  dif- 
ferences of  opinion  among  his  political  friends  at  the  time,  and  in- 
asmuch as  it  has  to  some  extent  been  a  subject  of  debate  from  that 
time  to  the  present,  it  seems  obviously  proper  to  introduce  here  the 
substance  of  his  reasoning  after  the  objections  had  been  stated : — 

"  I  have  long,  w-ith  pleasure  and  pride,  co-operated  in  the  pub- 
lic service  with  the  senator  from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Webster], 
and  I  have  found  him  faithful,  enlightened,  and  patriotic.  I  have 
not  a  particle  of  doubt  as  to  the  pure  and  elevated  motives  which 
actuate  him.  Under  these  circumstances,  it  gives  me  deep  and 
lasting  regret,  to  find  myself  compelled  to  differ  from  him  as  to  a 
measure  involving  vital  interests,  and  perhaps  the  safety  of  the 
Union.  On  the  other  hand,  I  derive  great  consolation  from  find- 
ing myself,  on  this  occasion,  in  the  midst  of  friends  with  whom  I 
have  long  acted,  in  peace  and  in  war,  and  especially  with  the  hon- 
orable senator  from  Maine  [Mr.  Holmes],  with  whom  I  had  the 
happiness  to  unite  in  a  memorable  instance.  It  was  in  this  very 
chamber,  that  senator  presiding  in  the  committee  of  the  senate, 
and  I  in  committee  of  twenty-four  of  the  house  of  representatives, 
on  a  sabbath-day,  that  the  terms  were  adjusted,  by  which  the  com- 
promise of  tlie  Missouri  question  was  effected.  Then  the  dark 
clouds  that  hung  over  our  beloved  country  were  dispersed  ;  and 
now  the  thunders  from  others,  not  less  threatening,  and  which  have 
been  longer  accumulating,  will,  I  hope,  roll  over  us  harmless  and 
without  injury. 


THii    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  235 

"  The  senator  from  Massachusetts  objects  to  the  bill  under  con- 
sideration, on  various  grounds.     He  argues,  that  it  imposes  unjus- 
tifiable restraints  on  the  power  of  future  legislation  ;  that  it  aban- 
dons the   protective  policy,   and  that   the   details  of  the  bill  are 
practically  defective.     He  does  not  object  to  the  gradual,  but  very 
inconsiderable,  reduction  of  duties  which  is  made  prior  to  1842. 
To  that  he  could  not  object,  because  it  is  a  species  of  prospective 
provision,  as  he  admits,  in  conformity  with  numerous  precedents 
on  our  statute-book.     He  does  not  object  so  much  to  the  state  of 
the  proposed  law  prior  to  1S42,  during  a  period  of  nine  years  ; 
but,  throwing  himself  forward  to  the  termination  of  that  period,  he 
contends  that  Congress  will    then  find   itself  under  inconvenient 
shackles,  imposed  by  our  indiscretion.     In  the  first  place,  I  would 
remark,  that  the  bill  contains  no  obligatory  pledges — it  could  make 
none,  none  are  attempted.     The  power  over  the  subject  is  in  the 
constitution,  put  there  by  those  who  formed  it,  and  liable  to  be 
taken  out  only  by  an  amendment  of  the  instrument.     The  next 
Congress,  and  every  succeeding  Congress,  will  undoubtedly  have 
the  power  to  repeal   the  law  whenever  they  may  think  proper. 
Whether  they  will  exercise  it,  or  not,  will  depend  upon  a  sound 
discretion,  applied  to  the  state  of  the  whole  country,  and  estimating 
fairly  the  consequences  of  the  repeal,  both   upon  the  general  har- 
mony and  the  common  interests.     Then  the  bill  is  founded  in  a 
spirit  of  compromise.     Now,  in  all  compromises  there  must  be 
mutual  concessions.     The  friends  of  free  trade  insist,  that  duties 
should  be   laid   in   reference   to  revenue  alone.     The  friends  of 
American  industry  say,  that  another,  if  not  paramount  object  in 
laying  them,  should  be,  to  diminish  the  consumption  of  foreign, 
and  increase  that  of  domestic  products.     On  this  point  the  parties 
divide,  and  between  these  two  opposite  opinions  a  reconciliation  is 
to  be  effected,  if  it  can  be  accomplished.     The  bill  assumes  as  a 
basis  adequate  protection  for  nine  years,  and  less  beyond  that  term. 
The  friends  of  protection  say  to  their  opponents,  we  are  willing  to 
take  a  lease  of  nine  years,  with  the  long  chapter  of  accidents  be- 
yond that  period,  including  the  chance  of  war,  the  restoration  of 
concord,  and  along  with  it  a  conviction  common  to  all,  of  the  util- 
ity of  protection  ;  and  in  consideration  of  it,  if,  in  1842,  none  of 
these  contingences  shall  have  been  realized,  we  are  willing  to  sub- 
mit, as  long  as  Congress  may  think  proper,  to  a  maximum  rate  of 
twenty  per  centum,  with  the  power  of  discrimination  below  it,  cash 
duties,  Jiome  valuations,  and  a  liberal  list  of  free  articles,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  manufacturing   interest.     To   these  conditions  the 
opponents  of  protection   are  ready  to  accede.     The  measure  is 
what  it  professes  to  be,  a  compromise  ;  but  it  imposes,  and  could 
impose,  no  restriction  upon  the  will  or  power  of  a  future  Congress. 
Doubtless  great  respect  will  be  paid,  as  it  ought  to  be  paid,  to  the 
serious  condition  of  the  country  that  has  prompted  the  passage  of 


2oCi  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

this  bill.  Any  future  Congress  that  might  disturb  this  adjustment, 
would  act  under  a  high  responsibility ;  but  it  would  be  entirely 
within  its  competency  to  repeal,  if  it  thought  proper,  the  whole 
bill.  It  is  far  from  the  object  of  those  who  support  this  bill,  to 
abandon  or  surrender  the  policy  of  protecting  American  industry. 
Its  protection  or  encouragement  may  be  accomplished  in  various 
ways — first,  by  bounties,  as  far  as  they  are  within  the  constitutional 
power  of  Congress  to  offer  them  ;  second,  by  prohibitions,  totally 
excluding  the  foreign  rival  article  ;  third,  by  high  duties,  without 
regard  to  the  aggregate  amount  of  revenue  which  they  produce  ; 
fourth,  by  discriminating  duties,  so  adjusted  as  to  limit  the  revenue 
to  the  economical  wants  of  government ;  and,  fifth,  by  the  admis- 
sion of  the  raw  material,  and  articles  essential  to  manufactures, 
free  of  duty ;  to  which  may  be  added,  cash  duties,  home  valua- 
tions, and  the  regulation  of  auctions.  A  perfect  system  of  protec- 
tion would  comprehend  most,  if  not  all  these  modes  of  affording  it. 
There  might  be  at  this  time  a  prohibition  of  certain  articles  (ardent 
spirits  and  coarse  cottons,  for  example)  to  public  advantage.  If 
there  were  not  inveterate  prejudices  and  conflicting  opinions  pre- 
vailing (and  what  statesman  can  totally  disregard  impediments  ?), 
such  a  compound  system  might  be  established. 

"  Now,  Mr.  President,  before  the  assertion  is  made,  that  the  bill 
surrenders  the  protective  policy,  gentlemen  should  understand  per- 
fectly what  it  does  not,  as  well  as  what  it  does  propose.  It  impairs 
no  power  of  Congress  over  the  whole  subject ;  it  contains  no 
promise  or  pledge  whatever,  express  or  implied,  as  to  bounties, 
prohibitions,  or  auctions;  it  does  not  touch  the  power  of  Congress 
in  regard  to  them,  and  Congress  is  perfectly  free  to  exercise  that 
power  at  any  time  ;  it  expressly  recognises  discriminating  duties 
within  a  prescribed  limit ;  it  provides  for  cash  duties  and  home 
valuations;  and  it  secures  a  free  list,  embracing  numerous  articles, 
some  of  high  importance  to  the  manufacturing  arts.  Of  all  the 
modes  of  protection  which  I  have  enumerated,  it  affects  only  the 
third  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  imposition  of  high  duties,  producing  a 
revenue  beyond  the  wants  of  government.  The  senator  from  Mas- 
sachusetts contends  that  the  policy  of  protection  was  settled  in 
1816,  and  that  it  has  ever  since  been  maintained.  Sir,  it  was  set- 
tled long  before  1S16.  It  is  coeval  with  the  present  constitution, 
and  it  will  continue,  under  some  of  its  various  aspects,  during  the 
existence  of  the  government.  No  nation  can  exist,  no  nation  per- 
haps ever  existed,  without  protection  in  some  form,  and  to  some 
extent,  being  applied  to  its  own  industry.  The  direct  and  neces- 
sary consequence  of  abandoning  the  protection  of  its  own  industry, 
would  be  to  subject  it  to  the  restrictions  and  prohibitions  of  foreign 
powers;  and  no  nation,  for  any  length  of  time,  can  endure  an  alien 
legislation,  in  which  it  has  no  will.  The  discontents  which  prevail, 
and  the  safety  of  the  republic,  may  require  the  modification  of  a 


♦  '  THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  2-37 

specific  mode  of  protection,  but  it  must  be  preserved  in  some  other 
more  acceptable  shape. 

"  All  that  was  settled  in  1816,  in  1824,  and  in  1828,  was,  that 
protection  should  be  afforded  by  high  duties,  loithout  rcgixrd  to  the 
amount  of  the  rcvejiuc  ivhich  they  might  yield.  During  that  whole 
period,  we  had  a  public  debt  which  absorbed  all  the  surpluses 
beyond  the  ordinary  wants  of  government.  Between  1816  and 
1824,  the  revenue  was  liable  to  the  greatest  fluctuations,  vibrating 
between  the  extremes  of  about  nineteen  and  thirty-six  millions  of 
dollars.  If  there  were  more  revenue,  more  debt  was  paid  ;  if  less, 
a  smaller  amount  was  reimbursed.  Such  was  sometimes  the 
deficiency  of  the  revenue,  that  it  became  necessary  to  the  ordinary 
expenses  of  government,  to  trench  upon  the  ten  millions  annually 
set  apart  as  a  sinking  fund,  to  extinguish  the  public  debt.  If  the 
public  debt  remained  undischarged,  or  we  had  any  other  practical 
mode  of  appropriating  the  surplus  revenue,  the  form  of  protection, 
by  high  duties,  might  be  continued  without  public  detriment.  It 
is  the  payment  of  the  public  debt,  then,  and  the  arrest  of  internal 
improvements  by  the  exercise  of  the  veto,  that  unsettles  that  spe- 
cific form  of  protection.  Nobody  supposes,  or  proposes,  that  we 
should  continue  to  levy,  by  means  of  high  duties,  a  large  annual 
surplus,  of  which  no  practical  use  can  be  made,  for  the  sake 
of  the  incidental  protection  which  they  afford.  The  secretary 
of  the  treasury  estimates  that  surplus  on  the  existing  scale  of  du- 
ties, and  with  the  other  sources  of  revenue,  at  six  millions  annu- 
ally. An  annual  accumulation  at  that  rate,  would,  in  a  few  years, 
bring  into  the  treasury  the  whole  currency  of  the  country,  to  lie 
there  inactive  and  dormant. 

"  This  view  of  the  condition  of  the  country  has  impressed  every 
public  man  with  the  necessity  of  some  modification  of  the  princi- 
ples of  protection,  so  far  as  it  depends  upon  high  duties.  The 
senator  from  Massachusetts  feels  it ;  and  hence,  in  the  resolutions 
which  he  submitted,  he  proposes  to  reduce  the  duties,  so  as  to  limit 
the  amount  of  the  revenue  to  the  wants  of  the  government.  With 
him  revenue  is  the  principal,  protection  the  subordinate  object.  If 
protection  can  not  be  enjoyed  after  such  a  reduction  of  duties  as 
he  thinks  ought  to  be  made,  it  is  not  to  be  extended.  He  says, 
specific  duties  and  the  power  of  discrimination,  are  preserved  by 
his  resolutions.  So  they  may  be  under  the  operation  of  the  bill. 
The  only  difference  between  the  two  schemes  is,  that  the  bill,  in 
the  maximum  which  it  provides,  suggests  a  certain  limit,  while  his 
resolutions  lay  down  none.  Below  that  maximum,  the  principle 
of  discrimination  and  specific  duties  may  be  applied.  The  senator 
from  Pennsylvania  [Mr.  Dallas],  who,  equally  with  the  senator 
from  Massachusetts,  is  opposed  to  this  bill,  would  have  agreed  to 
the  bill,  if  it  had  fixed  thirty  instead  of  twenty  per  centum  ;  and 
he  would  have  dispensed  with  home  valuation,  and  come  down  to 


238  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

the  revenue  standard  in  five  or  six  years.  Now,  Mr.  President,  I 
prefer,  and  I  think  the  manufacturing  interest  will  prefer,  nine 
years  of  adequate  protection,  home  valuations,  and  twenty  per 
centum,  to  the  plan  of  the  senator  from  Pennsylvania. 

"  Mr.  President,  I  want  to  be  perfectly  understood  as  to  the 
motives  which  have  prompted  me  to  offer  this  ^measure.  I  repeat 
what  I  said  on  the  introduction  of  it,  that  they  are,  first,  to  preserve 
the  manufacturing  interest,  and,  secondly,  to  quiet  the  country.  I 
believe  the  American  system  to  be  in  the  greatest  danger;  and  I 
believe  it  can  be  placed  on  a  better  and  safer  foundation  at  this 
session  than  at  the  next.  I  heard  with  surprise,  my  friend  from 
Massachusetts  say,  that  nothing  had  occurred  within  the  last  six 
months  to  increase  its  hazard.  I  entreat  him  to  review  that  opin- 
ton.  Is  it  correct?  Is  the  issue  of  numerous  elections,  including 
that  of  the  highest  officer  of  the  government,  nothing  ?  Is  the 
explicit  recommendation  of  that  officer,  in  his  message,  at  the 
opening  of  the  session,  sustained,  as  he  is,  by  a  recent  triumphant 
election,  nothing?  Is  his  declaration  in  his  proclamation,  that  the 
burdens  of  the  south  ought  to  be  relieved,  nothing?  Is  the  intro- 
duction of  a  bill  into  the  house  of  representatives,  during  this  ses- 
sion, sanctioned  by  the  head  of  the  treasury  and  the  administration, 
prostrating  the  greater  part  of  the  manufactures  of  the  country, 
nothing?  Are  the  increasing  discontents,  nothing?  Is  the  ten- 
dency of  recent  events  to  unite  the  whole  south,  nothing  ?  What 
have  we  not  witnessed  in  this  chamber?  Friends  of  the  adminis- 
tration, bursting  all  the  ties  which  seemed  indissolubly  to  unite 
them  to  its  chief,  and,  with  few  exceptions  south  of  the  Potomac, 
opposing,  and  vehemently  opposing,  a  favorite  measure  of  that 
administration,  which  three  short  months  ago  they  contributed  to 
establish  ?  Let  us  not  deceive  ourselves.  Now  is  the  time  to  ad- 
just the  question,  in  a  manner  satisfactory  to  both  parties.  Put  it 
off  until  the  next  session,  and  the  alternative  may  and  probably 
then  would  be  a  speedy  and  ruinous  reduction  of  the  tariff,  or  a 

civil  war  with  the  entire  south. 
******** 

"  I  have  been  represented  as  the  father  of  this  system,  and  I  am 
charged  with  an  unnatural  abandonment  of  my  own  offspring.  I 
have  never  arrogated  to  myself  any  such  intimate  relation  to  it.  I 
have,  indeed,  cherished  it  with  parental  fondness,  and  my  affection 
is  undiminished;  but  in  what  condition  do  I  find  this  child?  It 
is  in  the  hands  of  the  Philistines,  who  would  strangle  it.  I  fly  to 
its  rescue,  to  snatch  it  from  their  custody,  and  to  place  it  on  a  bed 
of  security  and  repose  for  nine  years,  where  it  may  grow  and 
strengthen,  and  become  acceptable  to  the  whole  people.  I  behold 
a  torch  about  being  applied  to  a  favorite  edifice,  and  I  would  save 
it  if  possible  before  it  is  wrapt  in  flames,  or  at  least  preserve  the 
precious  furniture  which  it  contains.     I  wish  to  see  the  tariff  sep- 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  239 

arated  from  the  politics  of  the  country,  that  business  men  may  go 
to  work  in  security,  with  some  prospect  of  stability  in  our  laws, 
and  without  everything  being  staked  on  the  issue  of  elections,  as  it 
were  on  the  hazards  of  the  die." 

It  can  not  but  be  seen,  that  it  is  due  to  let  Mr.  Clay  speak  for 
himself  on  a  subject  of  such  moment  at  the  time,  and  in  which  his 
reputation  is  so  much  concerned  ;  for,  to  this  day,  there  are  some, 
among  his  political  friends,  who  seem  not  to  be  fully  convinced, 
that  his  course  in  bringing  forward  that  great  measure,  and  in  avail- 
ing himself  of  his  influence  to  secure  its  adoption,  was  wise  and 
beneficial.    Such  persons  might  well  be  asked,  in  all  the  hght  which 
time  and  events  have  cast  upon  the  subject,  what  better  could  he 
have  done  ?     If  this  question  could  not  easily  be  answered  now, 
it  is,  doubtless,  a  very  strong  vindication  of  Mr.  Clay.     For,  he 
who  did  best,  having  no  other  guide  than  future  contingencies,  ari- 
sing out  of  the  probabilities  of  the  present,  as  determined  by  that 
future  when  surveyed  as  past,  has  realized  the  highest  possible 
sanction  of  his  conduct.     There  was  also  a  very  high  sanction  at 
the  time  in  the  approval  of  the  great  majority  of  the  American  peo- 
ple of  all  parties.     Although  it  took  the  nation  by  surprise,  yet, 
when  the  people  had  time  to  reflect  upon  it,  Mr.  Clay  was  triumph- 
antly sustained.     These  impressions  on  the  common  sense  of  the 
people  are  of  great  weight  as  evidence.     In  Mr.  Clay's  eastern 
tour,  in  the  autumn  of  1833,  it  will  be  found,  that  nothing  in  hi3 
whole  history  so  much  recommended  him  to  the  gratitude  of  the 
people  as  this  measure — that  everywhere  it  was  the  constant  theme 
of  enthusiastic  praise  among  all  classes.     This,  as  can  not  be  de- 
nied, is  a  strong  test.    It  also  continued  to  be  the  subject  of  popu- 
lar approbation,  and  has  never  ceased  to  be  so,  down  to  this  time, 
under  all  the  calamities  through  which  the  country  has  been  doomed 
to  pass.     That  same  good  sense  which  at  first  discovered  the  pro- 
priety, expediency,  wisdom,  and  beneficence  of  the  measure,  was 
able  to  discern  the  causes  in  the  administration  of  the  government, 
and  in  the  hostile  measures  of  the  national  executive,  which  barred 
the  best  eff'ects  of  the  compromise  law,  and  subverted  its  designs. 
The  people  did  not,  for  such  reasons,  undervalue  the  services  of 
Mr.  Clay  in  originating  the  bill,  and  securing  its  adoption.     They 
saw  that  the  country  had  been  saved  from  civil  war ;  that  every- 
thing had  been  done  that  could  be  done,  in  such  circumstances, 
to  rescue  the  protective  system  from  hostile  hands  ;  that  a  favora- 
ble lease  had  been  procured  for  it ;  that  the  compromise  law  had 


:240  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

very  important  conservative  powers  in  it ;  and  that  the  high  regal 
prerogatives  employed  by  General  Jackson  to  disappoint  its  design, 
by  violating  its  terms,  by  suppressing  the  land  bill,  breaking  down 
the  currency,  and  in  various  other  ways,  were  the  cause  of  all  the 
evil  that  came  upon  the  country,  notwithstanding  the  existence  of 
this  beneficent  measure.  INIr.  Clay,  apparendy,  never  lost  any  of 
the  credit  that  was  due  to  him  for  his  efforts  on  that  occasion,  and 
for  their  immediate  result. 

That  they  who  first  opposed  the  measure,  should  still  pretend 
to  be  as  wise  as  they  supposed  they  were  then,  is  not  perhaps 
very  strange.  Pride  of  opinion  is  a  powerful  principle,  and  men, 
especially  statesmen,  are  usually  reluctant  to  admit  they  have  been 
in  error.  It  was  a  risk  of  this  kind,  to  wit,  the  probability  of  being 
obliged  to  encounter  the  opposition  of  friends,  which  Mr.  Clay 
knew  and  predicted  would  be  his  misfortune,  in  bringing  forward 
the  compromise.  It  has,  however,  stood  the  test  of  time,  and 
been  sustained  by  the  public  voice,  notwithstanding  all  the  disad- 
vantages it  had  to  contend  with,  from  the  temper  and  course  of  the 
administration,  during  the  term  for  which  it  was  enacted. 

Mr.  Clay  was  no  doubt  much  influenced  by  some  significant 
symptoms  of  the  time.  He  indeed  confessed  it  openly  in  the  sen- 
ate. The  elections  of  1832  were  regarded  as  sufficient  to  sustain 
General  Jackson  in  anything  he  should  please  to  do.  He  had 
proclaimed  war  against  nullification,  and  would  doubtless  have  per- 
sisted in  subduing  it ;  but  he  at  the  same  time  acknowledged  that 
the  south  had  been  wronged,  and  that  its  wrongs  ought  to  be  re- 
dressed. Though  South  Carolina  was  alone  in  its  ultra  measures, 
she  was  sustained  by  a  general  sympathy  in  that  quarter  of  the 
Union.  Even  the  Old  Dominion  was  ready  to  make  common 
cause  in  a  legitimate  war  on  the  tariff,  and  had  deputed  one  of  her 
most  distinguished  citizens  to  a  conference  with  the  authorities  of 
South  Carolina,  with  instructions  to  advise  that  state  to  suspend 
her  opposition  to  the  federal  laws,  no  doubt  with  the  understanding, 
that  \irginia  would  join  her  in  all  lawful  measures  of  opposition  to 
the  protective  policy.  Such  was  the  general  feeling  of  the  south. 
It  is  remarkable  also,  that,  in  the  zenith  of  General  Jackson's  pop- 
ularity, this  sympathy  seemed  to  be  extending  itself  over  the  Union, 
even  in  the  north  and  east.  The  president  would  probably  have 
succeeded,  if  driven  to  it,  in  putting  down  South  Carolina  by  force, 
though  it  was  an  alternative  of  fearful  import,  if  not  of  doubtful 
issue.     But  in  that  event,  the  atonement  must  in  some  measure 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  241 

correspond  with  the  severity  of  the  course  ;  and  having  clearly  in- 
timated, in  his  oflicial  communications  to  Congress  and  to  the  pub- 
lic, that  the  wrongs  which  the  south  complained  of,  ought  to  be 
redressed,  it  is  not  to  be  supposed,  that  anything  less  than  a  com- 
plete prostration  of  the  protective  system  would  have  followed — a 
prostration  from  which  it  could  hardly,  if  it  could  ever,  recover. 
When  would  the  nation  be  willing  to  re-enact  a  system  of  policy, 
which  had  cost  a  civil  war  ?  A  sore  spot  it  must  have  remained 
for  ever.  The  evidence  was  abundant,  that  the  tariff,  asa  protective 
measure,  could  not  live  another  year,  if  left  in  the  hands  of  the  ad- 
ministration, and  the  nullifiers  preferred  to  settle  their  difficulties 
with  the  friends  of  protection,  rather  than  with  General  Jackson. 

Are  not  such  reasons  of  great  force  ?  It  is  evident  that  Mr. 
Clay  felt,  for  he  uttered  them.  Actuated  by  such  powerful  con- 
siderations, he  almost  plunged  into  the  fire,  to  save  a  doomed  vic- 
tim. He  at  least  risked  much,  and  lost  much — lost  for  the  occa- 
sion, friends  whom  he  loved,  in  bringing  to  his  side  heartless 
opponents,  who,  as  soon  as  they  found  their  own  necks  safe,  would 
seek  the  first  opportunity  to  turn  against  him  ;  and  so  they  did. 
All  this  he  foresaw — knew  ;  and  yet  he  did  not  pause.  The  pro- 
tective system,  the  country,  demanded  the  risk,  and,  if  need  be, 
the  sacrifice. 

But,  said  Mr.  Clay  : — 

"  The  objections  of  the  honorable  senator  from  Massachu- 
setts are  principally  directed  to  the  period  beyond  1842.  During 
the  intermediate  time,  there  is  every  reason  to  hope  and  believe 
that  the  bill  secures  adequate  protection.  All  my  information 
assures  me  of  this  ;  and  it  is  demonstrated  by  the  fact,  that,  if  the 
measure  of  protection,  secured  prior  to  the  thirty-first  of  Decem- 
ber, 1841,  were  permanent ;  or  if  the  bill  were  even  silent  beyond 
that  period,  it  would  command  the  cordial  and  unanimous  concur- 
rence of  the  friends  of  the  policy.  What  then  divides,  what  alarms 
us  ?  It  is  what  may  ijossibly  be  the  state  of  things  in  the  year  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  forty-two,  or  subsequently  !  Now, 
sir,  even  if  that  should  be  as  bad  as  the  most  vivid  imagination,  or 
the  most  eloquent  tongue  could  depict  it,  if  we  have  intermediate 
safety  and  security,  it  does  not  seem  to  me  wise  to  rush  upon  cer- 
tain and  present  evils,  because  of  those  which,  admitting  their  pos- 
sibility, are  very  remote  and  contingent.  What !  shall  we  not 
extinguish  the  flame  which  is  bursting  through  the  roof  that  covers 
us,  because,  at  some  future  and  distant  day,  we  may  be  again 
threatened  with  conflagration  ? 

"  I  do  not  admit  that  this  bill  abandons  or  fails,  by  its  provisions, 

Vol.  IL— 16 


242  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

to  secure  reasonable  protection  beyond  1842.  I  can  not  know,  I 
pretend  not  to  know,  what  will  then  be  the  actual  condition  of  this 
country,  and  of  the  manufacturing  arts,  and  their  relative  condition 
to  the  rest  of  the  world.  I  would  as  soon  confide  in  the  forecast 
of  the  honorable  senator  from  Massachusetts,  as  in  that  of  any  other 
man  in  this  senate,  or  in  this  country  ;  but  neither  he,  nor  any  one 
else,  can  tell  what  that  condition  will  then  be.  The  degree  of 
protection  which  will  be  required  for  domestic  industry  beyond 
1842,  depends  upon  the  reduction  of  wages,  the  accumulation  of 
capital,  the  improvement  in  skill,  the  protection  of  machinery,  and 
the  cheapening  of  the  price,  at  home,  of  essential  articles,  such  as 
fuel,  iron,  and  so  forth.  I  do  not  think  that  the  honorable  senator 
can  throw  himself  forward  to  1842,  and  tell  us  what,  in  all  these 
particulars,  will  be  the  state  of  this  country,  and  its  relative  state 
to  other  countries.  We  know  that,  in  all  human  probability,  our 
numbers  will  be  increased  by  an  addition  of  one  third,  at  least,  to 
their  present  amount,  and  that  may  materially  reduce  wages.  We 
have  reason  to  believe  that  our  capital  will  be  augmented,  our  skill 
improved ;  and  we  know  that  great  progress  has  been  made,  and 
is  making,  in  machinery.  There  is  a  constant  tendency  to  de- 
crease in  the  price  of  iron  and  coal.  The  opening  of  new  mines 
and  new  channels  of  communication,  must  continue  to  lower  it. 
The  successful  introduction  of  the  process  of  cooking,  will  have 
great  effect.  The  price  of  these  articles,  one  of  the  most  opulent 
and  intelligent  manufacturing  houses  in  this  country  assures  me,  is 
a  principal  cause  of  the  present  necessity  of  protection  to  the  cot- 
ton interest ;  and  that  house  is  strongly  inclined  to  think  that  twenty 
per  centum,  with  the  other  advantages  secured  in  this  bill,  may  do 
beyond  1842.  Then,  sir,  what  effect  may  not  convulsions  and 
revolutions  in  Europe,  if  any  should  arise,  produce?  I  am  far 
from  desiring  them,  that  our  country  may  profit  by  their  occurrence. 
Her  greatness  and  glory  rest,  I  hope,  upon  a  more  solid  and  more 
generous  basis.  But  we  can  not  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact,  that 
our  greatest  manufacturing,  as  well  as  commercial  competitor,  is 
undergoing  a  momentous  political  experiment,  the  issue  of  which  is 
far  from  being  absolutely  certain.  Who  can  raise  the  veil  of  the 
succeeding  nine  years,  and  show  what,  at  their  termination,  will  be 
the  degree  of  competition  which  Great  Britain  can  exercise  toward 
us  in  the  manufacturing  arts? 

"  Suppose,  in  the  progress  of  gradual  descent  toward  the  revenue 
standard  for  which  this  bill  provides,  it  should  some  years  hence 
become  evident  that  further  protection,  beyond  1842,  than  that 
which  it  contemplates  may  be  necessary,  can  it  be  doubted  that 
in  some  form  or  other,  it  will  be  applied?  Our  misfortune  has 
been,  and  yet  is,  that  the  public  mind  has  been  constantly  kept  in 
a  state  of  feverish  excitement,  in  respect  to  this  system  of  policy. 
Conventions,  elections.  Congress,  the  public  press,  have  been  for 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  243 

years  all  acting  upon  the  tariff,  and  the  tariff  acting  upon  them  all. 
Prejudices  have  been  excited,  passions  kindled,  and  mutual  irrita- 
tions carried  to  the  highest  pitch  of  exasperation,  insomuch  that 
good  feelings  have  been  almost  extinguished,  and  the  voice  of 
reason  and  experience  silenced,  among  the  members  of  the  confed- 
eracy. Let  us  separate  the  tariff  from  the  agitating  politics  of  the 
country,  place  it  upon  a  stable  and  firm  foundation,  and  allow  our 
enterprising  countrymen  to  demonstrate  to  the  whole  Union,  by 
their  skilful  and  successful  labors,  the  inappreciable  value  of  the 
arts.  If  they  can  have  what  they  have  never  yet  enjoyed,  some 
years  of  repose  and  tranquillity,  they  will  make,  silently,  more 
converts  to  the  policy,  than  would  be  made  during  a  long  period 
of  anxious  struggle  and  boisterous  contention.  Above  all,  I  count 
upon  the  good  effects  resulting  from  a  restoration  of  the  harmony 
of  this  divided  people,  upon  their  good  sense  and  their  love  of 
justice.  Who  can  doubt,  that  when  passions  have  subsided,  and 
reason  has  resumed  her  empire,  that  there  will  be  a  disposition 
throughout  the  whole  Union,  to  render  ample  justice  to  all  its  parts? 
Who  will  believe  that  any  section  of  this  great  confederacy  would 
look  with  indifference  to  the  prostration  of  the  interests  of  another 
section,  by  distant  and  selfish  foreign  nations,  regardless  alike  of 
the  welfare  of  us  all?  No,  sir;  I  have  no  fears  beyond  1842. 
The  people  of  the  United  States  are  brethren,  made  to  love  and 
respect  each  other.  Momentary  causes  may  seem  to  alienate 
them,  but,  like  family  differences,  they  will  terminate  in  a  closer 
and  more  affectionate  union  than  ever.  And  how  much  more 
estimable  will  be  a  system  of  protection,  based  on  common  con- 
viction and  common  consent,  and  planted  in  the  bosoms  of  all, 
than  one  wrenched  by  power  from  reluctant  and  protesting 
weakness? 

"  That  such  a  system  will  be  adopted,  if  it  should  be  necessary 
for  the  period  of  time  subsequent  to  1842,  I  will  not  doubt.  But, 
in  the  scheme  which  I  originally  proposed,  I  did  not  rely  exclu- 
sively, great  as  my  reliance  is,  upon  the  operation  of  fraternal 
feelings,  the  return  of  reason,  and  a  sense  of  justice.  The  scheme 
contained  an  appeal  to  the  interests  of  the  south.  According  to  it, 
unmanufactured  cotton  was  to  be  a  free  article  after  1842.  Gentle- 
men from  that  quarter  have  again  and  again  asserted  that  they 
were  indifferent  to  the  duty  of  three  cents  per  pound  on  cotton, 
and  that  they  feared  no  foreign  competition.  I  have  thought 
otherwise ;  but  I  was  willing,  by  way  of  experiment,  to  take  them 
at  their  word;  not  that  I  was  opposed  to  the  protection  of  cotton, 
but  I  believed  that  a  few  cargoes  of  foreign  cotton  introduced  into 
our  northern  ports,  free  of  duty,  would  hasten  our  southern  friends 
to  come  here  and  ask  that  protection  for  their  great  staple,  which  is 
wanted  in  other  sections  for  their  interests.  That  feature  in  the 
scheme  was  stricken  out  in  the  select  committee,  but  not  by  the 


244  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

consent  of  my  friend  from  Delaware  [Mr.  Clayton]  or  myself. 
Still,  after  1S42,  tlie  south  may  want  protection  for  sugar,  for  to- 
bacco, for  Virginia  coal,  perhaps  for  cotton  and  other  articles,  while 
other  quarters  may  need  it  for  wool,  woollens,  iron,  and  cotton  fab- 
rics ;  and  these  mutual  wants,  if  they  should  exist,  will  lead,  I  hope, 
to  some  amicable  adjustment  of  a  tariff  for  that  distant  period,  satis- 
factory to  all.  The  theory  of  protection  supposes,  too,  that  after  a 
certain  time,  the  protected  arts  will  have  acquired  such  strength  and 
perfection  as  will  enable  them  subsequently,  unaided,  to  stand  up 
against  foreign  competition.  If,  as  I  have  no  doubt,  this  should 
prove  to  be  correct,  it  will,  on  the  arrival  of  1842,  encourage  all 
parts  of  the  Union  to  consent  to  the  continuance  of  longer  protec- 
tion to  the  few  articles  which  may  then  require  it." 

It  may  be  observed,  that  the  remark  of  Mr.  Clay  above,  as  to 
what  "the  theory  of  protection  supposes,"  is  apparently  in  conflict 
with  the  doctrine  announced  at  the  opening  of  chapter  six,  of  this 
volume,  to  wit,  that  universal  free  trade,  by  general  consent  of  all 
nations,  including  the  United  States,  would  be  destructive  of  Amer- 
ican freedom.  Mr.  Clay  may  be  right,  if  he  meant  all  he  appears 
to  say  in  that  sentence,  and  the  author  may  be  wrong  in  the  doc- 
trine he  has  advanced,  and  endeavored  to  explain,  in  the  place  re- 
ferred to.  Or,  possibly,  Mr.  Clay  intends  merely  to  announce  a 
common  opinion,  or  a  proposition  usually  taken  for  granted,  with- 
out being  responsible  for  it.  It  doubtless  has  been  a  prevalent 
opinion,  and  is  so  yet.  The  question  involved  in  it,  as  presented 
by  the  author,  has  in  fact,  as  he  supposes,  never  been  debated  ; 
but,  as  he  sincerely  believes  in  the  doctrine  he  has  ventured  to 
propound,  and  regards  it  as  one  which,  at  a  future  time,  will  be- 
come of  great  practical  importance,  he  has  thought  proper  to  state 
it-  He  indeed  thinks  it  of  great  importance  now,  and  that,  if  it 
were  understood,  it  would  at  once  and  for  ever  settle  the  contro- 
versy regarding  the  protective  policy  in  the  United  States. 

It  will  be  recognised,  the  moment  it  is  mentioned,  that  many 
persons  have  dwelt  on  the  facts,  and  on  those  relations  which  com- 
bine the  elements  of  this  doctrine,  and  in  speaking  of  them,  have 
maintained,  that  freedom  was  concerned  in  the  protective  policy. 
Statesmen  have  seen  it,  felt  it,  and  talked  about  it  eloquently ;  and 
yet  it  does  not  appear,  that  the  doctrine  has  been  reduced  to  form 
— that  the  pivot  on  which  it  rests  has  been  pointed  out.  It  lies  in 
the  difference  between  that  state  of  political  society  which  secures 
to  labor  a  fair  compensation,  and  that  which  robs  labor  of  its  fair 
reward.     The  doctrine  which  grows  out  of  this  difference  is,  that 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  245 

the  labor  of  the  former  state  of  society  must  be  protected  against 
the  effects  of  the  labor  of  the  latter,  considered  as  it  is  wielded  by 
those  who  deprive  it  of  compensation,  and  appropriate  it  to  them- 
selves. This  labor,  thus  wronged,  is  employed  by  its  oppressors, 
as  a  power — a  tremendous  agent  to  enslave  the  masses  of  mankind. 
This  is  the  reason  why  American  labor  will  for  ever  require  pro- 
tection against  such  an  agency,  so  long  as  the  present  state  of  soci- 
ety exists  in  Europe,  or  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  with  which 
the  United  States  have  commercial  intercourse.  The  theory  of 
protection,  therefore,  as  above  stated  by  Mr.  Clay,  and  as  usually 
stated,  to  wit,  that,  "  after  a  certain  time,  the  protected  arts  will 
have  acquired  such  strength  and  perfection  as  will  enable  them 
subsequently,  unaided,  to  stand  up  against  foreign  competition,"  is 
obviously  in  conflict  with  this  doctrine.  If  this  doctrine  is  sound, 
this  theory  is  unsound.  In  other  words,  although  the  theory  may 
answer  a  temporary  purpose,  or  be  innocent,  the  time  must  come 
when  it  will  be  insufficient — when  it  will  be  found,  that  American 
labor  must  be  protected  under  any  circumstances,  or  freedom 
be  lost. 

It  can  not  but  be  observed,  that  the  debate  on  the  protective 
policy  has  often  approached  this  point,  touched  it,  handled  it,  al- 
though, possibly,  it  did  not  distinctly  understand  what  it  was 
handling.  Instinct  often  arrives  at  truth  before  reason  does,  and 
independent  of  reason.  "  The  pauper  labor  of  Europe,"  has  been 
in  everybody's  mouth,  and  that,  as  opposed  to  American  labor, 
involving  the  relation  of  the  two,  suggests  and  comprehends  the 
doctrine  which  the  author  has  thought  incumbent  on  him  to  pro- 
pound. And  he  thinks  there  is  an  advantage  in  it,  because  it  re- 
duces the  question  regarding  the  protective  policy  to  a  point,  from 
which,  when  it  shall  be  understood,  there  will  be  no  possibility  of 
escape,  and  which  will  operate  with  irresistible  energy  on  the 
masses  of  the  American  people.  When  once  they  shall  see,  that 
freedom  is  at  stake  on  the  free  trade  platform ;  that,  by  going  upon 
that,  they  put  themselves  in  the  power  of  European  and  other  for- 
eign oppressors,  who  live  and  riot  on  the  enslaved  condition  of 
human  labor,  it  will  no  longer  be  difficult  to  secure  their  suffrages 
for  those  who  understand  their  rights,  and  will  protect  them. 

The  fact,  that  the  substance  of  this  doctrine  has  been,  for  so 
many  years  and  so  often,  used  in  argument,  by  politicians  and 
statesmen — and  the  fact,  that  the  idea  that  "  the  pauper  labor  of 
Europe,"  brought  into  competition  with  American  labor,  invades 


246  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

and  Impairs  the  rights  of  the  latter — have  taken  so  strong  a  hold  of 
a  very  lar"-e  portion  of  the  laboring  classes  of  the  United  States, 
and  are  instinctively  felt  by  them,  as  matters  in  which  they  are 
deeply  concerned — are  strong  presumptive  evidence,  that  the  doc- 
ti'ine  is  not  without  foundation.  It  is  manifest,  that  politicians  and 
statesman  have  long  had  this  idea  in  their  heads,  though  perhaps 
not  in  a  definite  shape.  It  is  not  less  manifest,  that  no  inconsid- 
erable fraction  of  the  common  mind  is  possessed  of  it.  It  only  re- 
mains that  the  doctrine  should  be  made  palpable — that  the  plainest 
man  should  be  able,  forced  to  see,  that  "  the  pauper  labor  of  Eu- 
rope," and  of  other  foreign  parts,  as  an  agency  in  the  hands  of 
oppressors,  is  hostile  to  the  labor  of  American  freemen  ;  that  the 
two  things  can  never  subsist  together  on  the  same  platform  ;  that, 
on  the  principles  of  free  trade,  one  must  yield  to  the  other ;  that, 
in  such  a  conflict,  American  labor  will  inevitably  be  deprived  of  its 
rights ;  and  then  the  whole  controversy,  as  a  political  question,  is 
for  ever  decided. 

The  power  of  foreign  pauper  kbor  over  the  labor  of  American 
freemen,  is  not  vested  in  itself,  but  in  the  arm  of  its  oppressors. 
It  is  a  mere  agent  of  the  latter.  Nor  can  that  power  be  abated, 
except  by  a  change  of  political  society  in  those  quarters,  for  the 
emancipation  of  labor.  So  long  as  political  society  is  the  same 
there,  and  the  same  here,  there  can  never  be  a  time  when  "  the 
protected  arts"  in  the  United  States,  "shall  have  acquired  such 
strength  and  perfection  as  will  enable  them  subsequently,  unaided, 
to  stand  up  against  foreign  competition."  No  matter  what  strength, 
no  matter  what  perfection,  they  may  acquire,  they  will  never  be 
strong  enough,  never  perfect  enough,  to  employ  free  labor  at  a  fair 
price,  in  a  field  of  competition  with  the  same  arts  worked  by  forced 
labor  at  a  price  which  barely  supports  existence. 

But  to  return  to  the  position  occupied  by  Mr.  Clay,  in  the  sup- 
port of  the  compromise  tarifi".  It  was  objected  to  by  the  advocates 
of  the  protective  policy,  because  it  was  obtaining  the  concurrence 
of  the  opponents  of  that  policy,  Mr.  Calhoun  and  others.  What 
was  the  use  of  a  compromise — how  could  any  measure  be  of  that 
character — if  it  did  not  tend  to  bring  those  who  occupied  extremes 
nearer  together — on  common  ground  ?  It  was  impossible  that 
both  parties  should  occupy  their  respective  positions,  and  yet  come 
together.  Mutual  concessions  were  necessarily  implied  in  a  com- 
promise. The  objection  was  founded  on  a  fact,  which  ought  to 
remove  all  objections,  so  that  the  concessions  were  fairly  made 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  247 

by  each  party.  It  should  not  have  been  surprising,  if  the  nulUfi- 
ers,  whose  heads,  under  the  proclamation  of  General  Jackson,  were 
not  safe  on  their  shoulders,  had  sought  protection  under  any  com- 
promise, having  sufficient  appearances  of  concession  from  their 
opponents  to  justify  their  own  self-respect.  That  they  were  willing 
to  come  over,  to  unite  in  a  heahng  measure,  was  rather  a  subject 
of  gratulation,  than  a  just  occasion  of  opposition.  Mr.  Clay  very 
justly  remarked,  that  the  proposed  measure  should  rather  be  judged 
by  its  nature,  than  by  those  who  might  happen  to  vote  for  it. 

The  bill  to  enforce  the  federal  laws  in  South  Carolina,  had 
passed,  whereby  the  rights  of  the  general  government,  and  its  posi- 
tion in  this  matter,  were  duly  asserted.  The  government  having 
taken  this  ground,  was  it  not  due  to  the  Union,  and  to  humanity, 
to  hold  out  the  olive  branch  ?  The  contingent  prospects  and  re- 
sults of  a  collision,  were  fearful  to  contemplate.  The  enforcing 
bill  vindicated  authority ;  the  compromise  extended  the  hand  of 
conciliation. 

Mr.  Clay  concluded  his  speech  on  this  occasion,  as  follows  : — 

"  There  are  some  who  say,  let  the  tariff  go  down  ;  let  our  man- 
ufactures be  prostrated,  if  such  be  the  pleasure,  at  another  session, 
of  those  to  whose  hands  the  government  of  this  country  is  con- 
fided ;  let  bankruptcy  and  ruin  be  spread  over  the  land  ;  and  let 
resistance  to  the  laws,  at  all  hazards,  be  subdued.  Sir,  they  take 
counsel  from  their  passions.  They  anticipate  a  terrible  reaction 
from  the  downfall  of  the  tariff,  which  would  ultimately  re-estab- 
lish it  upon  a  firmer  basis  than  ever.  But  it  is  these  very  agita- 
tions, these  mutual  irritations  between  brethren  of  the  same  fam- 
ily, it  is  the  individual  distress  and  general  ruin  that  would  neces- 
sarily follow  the  overthrow  of  the  tariff,  that  ought,  if  possible,  to 
be  prevented.  Besides,  are  we  certain  of  this  reaction?  Have 
we  not  been  disappointed  in  it  as  to  other  measures  heretofore? 
But  suppose,  after  a  long  and  embittered  struggle,  it  should  come, 
in  what  relative  condition  would  it  find  the  parts  of  this  confed- 
eracy? In  what  state  our  ruined  manufactures?  When  they 
should  be  laid  low,  who,  amid  the  fragments  of  the  general 
wreck,  scattered  over  the  face  of  the  land,  would  have  courage  to 
engage  in  fresh  enterprises,  under  a  new  pledge  of  the  violated 
faith  of  the  government?  If  we  adjourn,  without  passing  this 
bill,  having  intrusted  the  executive  with  vast  powers  to  maintain 
the  laws,  should  he  be  able  by  the  next  session  to  put  down  all 
opposition  to  them,  will  he  not,  as  a  necessary  consequence  of 
success,  have  more  power  than  ever  to  put  down  the  tariff  also  ? 
Has  he  not  said  that  the  south  is  oppressed,  and  its  burdens  ought 
to  be  relieved?     And  will  he  not  feel  himself  bound,  after  he 


248  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

shall  have  triumphed;  if  triumph  he  may  in  a  civil  war,  to  appease 
the  discontents  of  the  south  by  a  modification  of  the  tariff,  in  con- 
formity with  its  wishes  and  demands  ?  No,  sir ;  no,  sir ;  let  us 
save  the  country  from  the  most  dreadful  of  all  calamities,  and  let 
us  save  its  industry,  too,  from  threatened  destruction.  Statesmen 
should  regulate  their  conduct  and  adapt  their  measures  to  the  ex- 
igencies of  the  times  in  which  they  Hve.  They  can  not,  indeed, 
transcend  the  limits  of  the  constitutional  rule  ;  but  with  respect  to 
those  symptoms  of  policy  which  fall  within  its  scope,  they  should 
arrange  them  according  to  the  interests,  the  wants,  and  the  preju- 
dices of  the  people.  Two  great  dangers  threaten  the  pubHc 
safety.  The  true  patriot  will  not  stop  to  inquire  how  they  have 
been  brought  about,  but  will  fly  to  the  deliverance  of  his  country. 
The  difterence  between  the  friends  and  the  foes  of  the  compro- 
mise, under  consideration,  is,  that  they  would,  in  the  enforcing 
act,  send  forth  alone  a  flaming  sword.  We  would  send  out  that 
also,  but  along  with  it  the  olive  branch,  as  a  messenger  of  peace. 
They  cry  out,  the  law !  the  law !  the  law  !  Power !  power ! 
power !  We,  too,  reverence  the  law,  and  bow  to  the  supremacy 
of  its  obligation  ;  but  we  are  in  favor  of  the  law  executed  in  mild- 
ness, and  of  power  tempered  with  mercy.  They,  as  we  think, 
would  hazard  a  civil  commotion,  beginning  in  South  Carolina,  and 
extending,  God  only  knows  where.  While  we  would  vindicate 
the  federal  government,  we  are  for  peace,  if  possible,  union,  and 
liberty.  We  want  no  war — above  all,  no  civil  war ;  no  family 
strife.  We  want  to  see  no  sacked  cities,  no  desolated  fields,  no 
smoking  ruins,  no  streams  of  American  blood  shed  by  American 
arms  ! 

"  I  have  been  accused  of  ambition  in  presenting  this  measure. 
Ambition  !  inordinate  ambition  !  If  I  had  thought  of  myself  only, 
I  should  have  never  brought  it  forward.  I  know  well  the  perils  to 
which  I  expose  myself:  the  risk  of  alienating  faithful  and  valued 
friends,  with  but  litde  prospect  of  making  new  ones,  if  any  new 
ones  could  compensate  for  the  loss  of  those  whom  we  have  long 
tried  and  loved,  and  the  honest  misconceptions  both  of  friends 
and  foes.  Ambition  !  If  I  had  listened  to  its  soft  and  seducing 
whispers ;  if  I  had  yielded  myself  to  the  dictates  of  a  cold,  cal- 
culating, and  prudential  policy,  I  would  have  stood  still  and  un- 
moved. I  might  even  have  silently  gazed  on  the  raging  storm, 
enjoyed  its  loudest  thunders,  and  left  those  who  are  charged  with 
the  care  of  the  vessel  of  state,  to  conduct  it  as  they  could.  I 
have  been  heretofore  often  unjustly  accused  of  ambition.  Low, 
grovelling  souls,  who  are  utterly  incapable  of  elevating  themselves 
to  the  higher  and  nobler  duties  of  pure  patriotism — beings,  who, 
for  ever  keeping  their  own  selfish  aims  in  view,  decide  all  public 
measures  by  their  presumed  influence  on  their  aggrandizement — 
judge  me  by  the  venal  rule  which  they  prescribe  to  themselves. 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  249 

I  have  given  to  the  winds  these  false  accusations,  as  I  consign 
that  which  now  impeaches  my  motives.  I  have  no  desire  for  of- 
fice, not  even  the  highest.  The  most  exahed  is  but  a  prison,  in 
which  the  incarcerated  incumbent  daily  receives  his  cold,  heartless 
visitants,  marks  his  weary  hours,  and  is  cut  off  from  the  practical 
enjoyment  of  all  the  blessings  of  genuine  freedom.  I  am  no  can- 
didate for  any  office  in  the  gift  of  the  people  of  these  states,  united 
or  separated ;  I  never  wish,  never  expect  to  be.  Pass  this  bill, 
tranquillize  the  country,  restore  confidence  and  affection  in  the 
union,  and  I  am  willing  to  go  home  to  Ashland,  and  renounce 
public  service  for  ever.  I  should  there  find,  in  its  groves,  under 
its  shades,  on  its  lawns,  amid  my  flocks  and  herds,  in  the  bosom 
of  my  family,  sincerity  and  truth,  attachment,  and  fidelity,  and 
gratitude,  which  I  have  not  always  found  in  the  walks  of  public 
life.  Yes,  I  have  ambition  ;  but  it  is  the  ambition  of  being  the 
humble  instrument,  in  the  hands  of  Providence,  to  reconcile  a  di- 
vided people — once  more  to  revive  concord  and  harmony  in  a  dis- 
tracted land — the  pleasing  ambition  of  contemplating  the  glorious 
spectacle  of  a  free,  united,  prosperous,  and  fraternal  people !" 

If  any  reasonable  man  looks  at  the  position  of  the  protective 
policy  at  the  moment  of  this  debate,  between  the  fires  of  nullifica- 
tion in  the  south  and  the  aims  of  the  administration  bill  then  pend- 
ing in  the  house  of  representatives — if  he  considers  the  exaspera- 
ting proclamation  of  the  president,  from  which  he  was  the  last 
man  to  retreat,  and  yet  must  atone  for  it  by  concessions  on  the  tar- 
iff", or  plunge  the  whole  country  in  a  civil  war — if  it  be  borne  in 
mind,  that  the  force  bill,  to  suppress  nullification,  had  already  be- 
come a  law — that  the  whole  country,  and  all  parties  concerned, 
were  in  a  state  of  perilous  excitement,  in  the  midst  of  magazines 
which  one  spark  might  explode,  who  can  say,  that  the  man  who 
boldly  walked  up  to  quench  the  lighted  matches,  to  throw  oil  on 
this  troubled  sea,  and  compose  it  to  a  calm,  was  not  deserving  of 
a  nation's  gratitude  ?  Who  could  claim,  that  he  should  save  all, 
when  all  was  on  the  brink  of  ruin  ?  Who  could  fairly  demand, 
that  he  should  restore  things  as  they  were  ?  All  he  pretended, 
or  offered,  was  a  healing  compromise  ;  and  who  does  not  know, 
that  a  compromise  is  not  the  settlement  of  a  difference  all  in  favor 
of  one  party  ? 

This  bill  was  passed  by  the  astonishing  majority — astonishing 
for  the  relative  strength  of  parties — of  120  to  84  in  the  house,  and 
29  to  16  in  the  senate,  was  approved  by  the  president,  and  the 
country  was  pacified.  From  the  verge  of  civil  war  and  a  dissolu- 
tion of  the  Union,  it  was  brought  back,  and  re-established  firmly. 


250  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

on  the  platform  of  the  constitution,  and  the  protective  policy, 
which  could  never,  in  any  human  probability,  have  lived  through 
another  sesssion  of  Congress,  was  saved. 

In  justice  to  Mr.  Clay,  it  is  required  to  be  noticed,  so  far  as  re- 
spects the  subsequent  operation  of  the  compromise  act,  that  one 
essential  element  and  substantive  part  of  his  plan,  in  the  device 
and  formation  of  this  measure,  was  the  public  land  bill  then  pend- 
ing, wliich  was  expected  to  pass,  and  did  pass  both  houses  of 
Congress,  and  which  was  not  expected  to  meet  with  any  obstacle 
from  the  president,  as  his  faith  was  virtually  pledged  to  sanction 
it  in  his  previous  annual  message.  The  violation  of  that  pledge 
in  pocketing  the  bill,  and  returning  it  to  the  next  Congress  a  dead 
letter,  disarmed  the  compromise  act  of  one  important  element  of  its 
efficacy  and  power.  If  the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands  had  been 
pledged  to  the  states,  as  that  bill  contemplated,  the  diversion  of 
that  amount  from  the  national  treasury,  from  that  time,  with  its 
prospective  influences,  would  have  brought  the  principles  of  the 
compromise  law  to  act  more  efficiently  on  the  general  government, 
forcing  it,  under  a  proper  sense  of  its  responsibility,  to  provide  an 
adequate  revenue,  in  the  manner  prescribed  by  the  compromise, 
and  thereby  more  effectually  to  maintain  the  protective  policy. 
The  failure  of  this  was  not  the  fault  of  Mr.  Clay — for  it  was  as 
much  a  part  of  his  plan,  as  if  it  had  been  a  part  of  the  compro- 
mise act ;  and  it  would  no  doubt  have  been  incorporated  with  that 
bill,  if  there  had  been  the  least  suspicion  of  General  Jackson's 
want  of  fidelity.  It  was  also  hoped,  that  the  federal  government 
would  return  at  an  earlier  period  to  a  proper  care  of  the  interests 
of  the  great  commonwealth,  and  not  let  the  currency  be  dried  up, 
by  drying  up  its  sources,  till  the  pockets  of  the  people,  and  the 
treasury  of  the  nation,  were  all  empty.  But  this  failing  of  duty 
on  the  part  of  government,  and  its  obstinate  perseverance  in  a  ru- 
inous policy,  forcing  the  compromise  act  to  go  halting  to  the  end 
of  its  term  without  the  aid  of  the  land  bill,  only  proves,  that  a 
part  of  the  plan  of  Mr.  Clay,  in  being  compelled  to  discharge  the 
functions  of  the  whole  as  well  as  it  could,  was  all  the  more  im- 
portant as  the  sole  stay  and  shield  of  the  protective  policy. 

Mr.  Clay,  in  his  first  speech  on  the  sub-treasury,  of  September 
25,  1837,  alludes  to  this  feature  in  the  history  of  the  operation  of 
the  compromise  act,  as  follows  : — 

"  A  subordinate,  but  not  unimportant  cause  of  the  evils  which 
at  present  encompass  us,  has  been  the  course  of  the  late  adminls- 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  251 

tration  [General  Jackson's]  toward  the  compromise  act.  The 
great  principle  of  that  act,  in  respect  to  our  domestic  industry,  was 
its  stability.  It  was  intended  and  hoped,  that,  by  withdrawing  the 
tariff  from  their  annual  discussions  in  Congress,  of  which  it  had 
been  the  fruitful  topic,  our  manufactures  would  have  a  certainty, 
for  a  long  period,  as  to  the  measure  of  protection  extended  to  them 
by  its  provisions,  which  would  compensate  any  reduction  in  the 
amount  contained  in  prior  acts.  For  a  year  or  two  after  it  was 
adopted,  the  late  administration  manifested  a  disposition  to  respect 
it,  as  an  arrangement  which  was  to  be  inviolable.  But  for  some 
time  past  it  has  been  constantly  threatened  from  that  quarter,  and 
a  settled  purpose  has  been  displayed  to  disregard  its  conditions." 

Also:  "If  the  land  bill  had  been  allowed  to  go  into  operation, 
it  would  have  distributed  generally  and  regularly  among  the  several 
states  the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands,  as  they  would  have  been 
received  from  time  to  time.  They  would  have  returned  back  in 
small  streams,  similar  to  those  by  which  they  have  been  collected, 
animating,  and  improving,  and  fructifying  the  whole  country. 
There  would  have  been  no  vast  surplus  to  en)barrass  the  govern- 
ment— no  removal  of  deposites  from  the  bank  of  the  United  States 
to  the  deposite  banks,  to  disturb  the  business  of  the  country — no 
accumulations  in  the  deposite  banks  of  immense  sums  of  public 
money,  augmented  by  the  circuit  it  was  performing  between  the- 
land  offices  and  the  banks,  and  the  banks  and  the  land  offices — no 
occasion  for  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  to  lash  the  deposite  banks 
Into  the  grant  of  inordinate  accommodations,  and  possibly  there 
would  have  been  no  suspension  of  specie  payments.  But  that  bill 
was  suppressed  by  a  most  extraordinary  and  dangerous  exercise 
of  executive  power." 

When  Mr.  Clay  was  taunted  by  Mr.  Calhoun,  on  the  floor  of 
the  senate,  in  1840,  as  having  been  laid  "  flat  on  his  back"  by  him 
(Mr.  Calhoun),  in  the  matter  of  the  compromise,  and  "  robbed  by 
another  senator  and  the  president,"  Mr.  Clay  said : — 

"  Sir,  what  was  the  case  ?  I  introduced  the  compromise  in  spite 
of  the  opposition  of  the  gentleman  who  is  said  to  have  robbed  me 
of  the  manufactures.  It  met  his  uncompromising  opposition.  That 
measure  had,  on  my  part,  nothing  personal  in  it.  But  I  saw  the 
condition  of  the  senator  from  South  Carolina  and  his  friends.  They 
had  reduced  South  Carolina  by  that  unwise  measure  (of  nullifica- 
tion), to  a  state  of  war,  and  I,  therefore,  wished  to  save  the  effu- 
sion of  human  blood,  and  especially  the  blood  of  our  fellow-citizens. 
That  was  one  motive  with  me  ;  and  another  was  a  regard  for  that 
very  interest  which  the  senator  says  I  helped  to  destroy.  I  saw 
that  this  great  interest  had  so  got  in  the  power  of  the  chief  magis- 
trate, that  it  was  evident,  that,  at  the  next  session  of  Congress,  the 
whole  protective  system  would  be  swept  by  the  board.    I  therefore 


252  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

desired  to  give  it,  at  least,  a  lease  of  years ;  and  for  that  purpose, 
1,  in  concert  with  others,  brouglit  forward  that  measure,  which  was 
necessary  to  save  that  interest  from  total  annihilation." 

But  the  grand  result  is  the  best  of  all  vindications.  What  hu- 
man eye  could  see  through  the  difficulties  the  country  was  placed 
in,  when  the  compromise  bill  was  brought  forward  ?  What  Amer- 
ican patriot,  before  the  adjustment  of  that  controversy,  could  gaze 
on  the  dubious  prospect,  and  not  be  dismayed"?  But,  behold, 
what  a  charm  was  wrouirht ! 

The  extracts,  in  the  note  below,  from  a  speech  of  the  Hon.  John 
M.  Clayton,  delivered  at  Wilmington,  Delaware,  June  15,  1844, 
are  deemed  pertinent  here.* 

*  "  I  was  in  the  senate  at  the  time  of  the  passage  of  the  compromise  act,  was  a 
member  of  the  committee  which  reported  it,  and  had  the  best  possible  opportunity 
of  knowing  the  motives  and  objects  of  Mr.  Clay,  in  the  introduction  and  passage 
of  that  measure.  His  aim  was  not  only  to  prevent  a  civil  war  and  the  dissolution 
of  the  Union,  but  to  save  the  protective  'policy.  I  am  convinced  that,  but  for  the 
passage  of  that  act,  the  protective  system  would  have  been  substantially  repealed 
more  than  ten  years  ago,  and  every  manufacturer  in  the  country  dependent  upon 
it  stricken  down.     ••*•««  «, 

"  It  is  quite  a  common  error,  that  the  act  itself  proposes  a  horizontal  tariff  of  20 
per  cent,  on  all  articles  of  importation,  as  the  maximum  rate  of  duties,  and  the 
final  resting-place  at  which  the  reduction  of  duties  proposed  by  the  act  shall 
cease,  and  stand  unchanged  and  unchangeable  for  ever.  At  this  day,  gentlemen 
of  intelligence,  professing  to  understand  and  discuss  the  legal  effect  of  this,  often 
speak  of  it  as  a  law,  the  great  object  of  which  was,  by  a  system  of  gradual  dimi- 
nution, to  reduce  the  duties  as  they  stood  under  the  act  of  1832,  to  a  universal 
levy  of  20  per  cent,  at  the  expiration  of  nine  years  and  four  months.  In  other 
words,  they  regarded  the  compromise  act  as  fixing  one  rate  for  all  dutiable  articles 

from  and  after  the  30th  of  June,  1842 — that  rate  being  20  per  cent,  ad  valorem 

and  as  containing  certain  binding  stipulations  or  pledges  on  the  part  of  the  authors 
of  that  law,  that  no  higher  rate  of  duty  should  ever  after  that  day  be  collected  by 
the  general  government.  This  supposition,  preposterous  as  it  is,  you  have  doubt- 
less observed,  is  an  opinion  quite  commonly  expressed,  and  that,  too,  not  unfre- 
quently  by  grave  legislators  on  the  floor  of  Congress.  That  the  enemies  of  Mr. 
Clay  should  have  so  expressed  themselves,  is  matter  to  be  regretted  ;  but  when 
tlie  friends  of  the  tariff,  and  the  very  men  who  profess  the  utmost  confidence  in 
the  rectitude  and  consistency  of  that  great  statesman,  fall  into  the  same  error,  it 
is  hish  time  the  mistake  should  be  corrected. 

"It  is  perfectly  true,  that  the  first  section  of  the  act  fixes  20  per  cent,  ad  valo- 
rem, as  the  highest  rate  at  which  dutiable  articles  should  be  admitted,  after  the  30th 
of  June,  1842;  but  the  third  section  of  the  act  provides  that,  from  and  after  that 
day,  '  duties  upon  imports  shall  be  laid  for  the  purpose  of  raising  such  revenue  as 
may  be  necessary  to  an  economical  administration  of  the  government;'  and  also 
tliat  such  duties  shall  be  assessed  on  the  home  valuation  and  payable  in  cash.  The 
leadmg  principles  established  by  the  act  were,  first,  that  after  the  30th  of  June, 
1842,  a  sufficient  revenue  should  be  raised  from  the  import  duties  alone  to  defray 
the  expenses  of  the  sovernment ;  secondly,  that  no  more  revenue  should  be  so 
collected  than  should  be  demanded  by  an  economical  administration  of  the  govern- 
ment;  thirdly,  that  the  best  possible  guards  acfainst  frauds  on  the  tariff  should  be 
established  by  theadoption  of  the  new  system  of  assessing  the  duties  on  the  home, 
instead  of  the  foreign  value,  and  making  those  duties  pavable  in  cash.  Whether 
these  duties,  from  which  all  the  revenue  for  the  support  of  government  was  to  be 
derived,  should  be  fixed  at  20  per  cent.,  or  at  50  per  cent.,  or  at  any  other  rate, 
was,  of  course,  a  subject  left  for  the  future  consideration  and  action  of  Congress, 
whenever  it  should  be  discovered  that  the  maximum  rate  of  20  per  cent.,  adopted 
by  the  first  section  of  the  bill,  was  insufficient  for  the  support  of  government. 
Nothing  was  further  from  the  intention  of  those  who  passed  this  law  than  to  at- 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  253 

The  following  extracts  from  Niles's  Register,  vol.  xliv.,  page 
6,  are  a  species  of  independent  evidence,  from  a  reporter  in  Con- 
gress, as  to  the  position  and  objects  of  Mr.  Clay,  in  originating  and 
sustaining  the  compromise  act : — 

"  Mr.  Dallas  then  moved  to  amend  the  amendment,  as  made  in 
committee  of  the  whole,  in  the  third  section,  by  striking  out  the 

tempt  to  prevent  future  legislation,  discriminating  with  a  view  to  protect  home  la- 
bor, in  the  contingency  of  a  defect  of  revenue  from  duties  of  20  per  cent.  I  have 
ever  regarded  the  tariff  passed  by  the  Congress  of  1842,  as  a  substantial  compli- 
ance, in  most  respects,  with  this  pledge  in  the  compromise  act,  with  this  exception 
only-:  that  law,  while  it  levies  duties  on  imports  to  support  the  government,  looks 
to  the  proceeds  of  the  sales  of  the  public  lands  as  an  auxiliary  for  that  purpose; 
while  the  compromise  act  gave  to  me,  as  I  thought  when  I  voted  for  it,  and  to  ev- 
ery friend  of  the  protective  system,  at  the  same  time  a  solemn  assurance,  that,  af- 
ter the  30th  of  June,  1842,  the  land  fund  should  cease  to  be  regarded  as  a  source 
of  revenue,  and  that  all  the  real  wants  of  the  government  should  be  supplied  ex- 
clusively from  duties  on  imports,  assessed  so  as  to  prevent  frauds,  and  payable  in 
cash. 

"  To  understand  this  subject,  as  it  was  really  understood  by  those  friends  with 
whom  I  acted  in  the  passage  of  the  compromise  act,  it  is  necessary  to  recur  to  some 
other  proceedings  cotemporaneous  with  it.  Mr.  Clay's  bill  to  distribute  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  sales  of  the  public  lands  among  the  states,  which  passed  both  houses 
of  Congress  about  the  same  time  with  the  compromise  itself,  was  by  us  regarded 
as  part  and  parcel  of  one  great  reveiu(,e  and  financial  system,  which  we  desired  to 
establish  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  country.  While  temporarily  surrendering 
the  land  fund  to  the  states,  to  which  it  rightfully  belonged,  in  the  judgment  of  the 
Congress  of  1833,  we  provided,  in  the  compromise  act,  that  there  should  be  a  day 
fixed,  at  which,  in  accordance  with  a  suggestion  previously  made  by  General  Jack- 
son himself,  the  land  fund  should  for  ever  cease  to  be  regarded  as  a  source  of  rev- 
enue by  the  general  government.  It  is  true,  that  we  should  have  acted  more 
wisely,  aa  the  event  proved,  by  incorporating  the  provisions  of  a  distribution  bill 
in  the  compromise  itself.  But  who  could  have  supposed,  at  that  day,  that  Presi- 
dent Jackson  would  have  vetoed  a  bill  which  carried  out  his  own  suggestion? 
Nevertheless,  he  defeated  that  great  and  salutary  measure  of  distribution,  by 
means  which  no  end  can  ever  justify.  He  refused  to  return  the  bill  with  his  ob- 
jections to  the  house  in  which  it  originated — unquestionably  because  he  had  rea- 
son to  believe,  that,  had  he  complied  with  this,  his  constitutional  duty,  each  branch 
of  Congress  stood  ready,  by  a  vote  of  two  thirds,  to  make  the  bill  a  law,  in  spite 
of  his  veto. 

"  I  have  said,  that  the  tariff  of  1842  is,  in  my  view,  a  substantial  compliance,  in 
most  respects,  with  the  principles  of  the  compromise  act,  and  the  pledges  given  in 
that  act  on  the  subject  of  the  regulation  of  duties  from  and  after  the  30th  of  June, 
1842.  But  it  was  not  a  compliance  in  all  respects.  In  my  humble  judgment,  had 
the  tariff  of  1842  been  passed  strictly  in  the  spirit  of  the  compromise  itself,  it 
would  have  been  a  better  tariff  for  protection  than  the  law  now  in  force.  It  would 
have  better  guarded  the  revenue  against  frauds  in  the  foreign  valuation ;  and  it 
would  more  effectually  have  checked  excessive  importation,  which  is  one  of  the 
greatest  curses  of  our  country.  The  distribution  of  the  land  fund  among  the 
states,  contemplated  by  the  compromise,  and  temporarily  provided  for  by  the  land 
bill,  would  have  put  an  end  to  the  agitation  of  the  question  of  protection  for  ever; 
and  the  principle  avowed  and  sustained  by  Mr.  Clay,  that,  in  laying  duties  for 
revenue,  discrimination  should  always  be  made  in  favor  of  protection,  as  an  inci- 
dent to  revenue,  would  have  been  the  settled  doctrine  of  the  country. 

"  To  show  that  this  opinion  is  well  founded,  let  us  suppose  that  Congress,  on 
the  30th  of  June,  1842,  had  resolved  to  make  a  tariff  strictly  in  pursuance  of  the 
compromise.  The  latter  directed,  that,  after  that  day,  and  not  until  after  that 
day,  duties  should  descend  by  a  rapid  reduction,  not  of  10  per  cent.,  but  of  the  last 
half  of  the  whole  excess  above  20  per  cent,  left  after  the  31st  of  December,  1839, 
and  that  reduction  be  20  per  cent,  on  the  home  value  of  the  imports,  unless  at 
that  time,  the  revenue  from  that  rate  of  duty  should  be  inadequate  to  support  the 
administration  of  the  government.     Now  how  stood  the  facts  on  that  day  ?    We 


254  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

words  which  suggest  the  point  to  which  the  duties  shall  be  ultimately 
reduced,  to  be  the  '  revenue  necessary  to  an  economical  adminis- 
tration of  the  government.' 

"  A  discussion  took  place  on  this  motion,  in  which  it  was  con- 
had  actually  incurred  a  national  debt  of  more  than  $20,000,000,  at  that  very  time, 
under  the  operation  of  a  higher  tariff  than  20  per  cent.,  and  that,  too,  with  the 
aid  of  all  the  land  fund,  and  bank  stocks  and  bank  dividends  besides.  Our  reve- 
nue had  sunk  so  low  that  the  credit  of  the  nation  was,  at  that  very  moment,  in  the 
most  deplorable  condition.  We  had  borrowed  on  that  credit  till  foreigners  would 
not  lend  us  another  dollar,  and  in  our  own  market  the  six  per  cent,  certificates  of 
the  loan  redeemable  in  twenty  years,  could  not  be  sold  to  any  considerable  amount 
for  anything  like  their  par  value.  We  had  approached  the  very  verge  of  national 
bankruptcy.  The  depressed  state  of  public  credit  was  one  of  the  contingencies 
anticipated  by  the  friends  of  Mr.  Clay,  at  the  passage  of  the  compromise,  and  we 
now  know  we  were  right.  We  foresaw  that  the  duties  never  could  descend  to  20 
per  cent.,  if  that  pledge  to  raise  the  duties  to  the  standard  of  the  wants  of  the 
government,  given  in  the  act,  should  be  fulfilled ;  and  our  hope — our  belief  was 
that  before  they  could  descend,  by  the  operation  of  the  law,  to  20  per  cent.,  men 
of  all  parties,  seeing  that  the  government  could  not  be  supported  on  that  princi- 
ple, would  confess  old  errors,  and  join  with  us,  under  happier  auspices,  in  so  ad- 
justing the  tariff,  as  that,  while  the  wants  of  government  would  be  supplied  from 
import  duties,  ample  protection,  as  incident  to  the  revenue,  would  be  freely  ac- 
corded to  us  without  further  strife.  If,  then.  Congress  had,  at  that  time,  raised 
the  duties  to  the  standard  then  fixed  by  the  compromise,  we  should  have  had  a 
tariff  which  would  more  effectually  have  protected  home  labor  than  the  act  of 
1842;  because,  although  the  duties  would  have  been  for  revenue,  with  only  inci- 
dental protection  (the  very  principle  of  the  act  of  1833),  yet  those  duties,  without 
the  aid  of  other  sources  of  revenue,  would  have  been  still  higher  than  those  of  1842, 
and  their  collection  far  better  guarded  against  frauds. 

"  But  the  compromise  act  caused  a  gradual  reduction  of  duties  until  the  30th  of 
June,  1842,  and  the  question  remains  to  be  answered,  Why  did  the  friends  of  pro- 
tection to  home  labor  consent  to  such  a  reduction  even  for  a  limited  period? 

"  The  answer  might  be  a  very  short  one.  Under  the  circumstances  in  which 
Ave  were  then  placed,  it  was  palpable  to  the  minds  of  those  who  voted  for  the  com- 
promise that,  unless  we  accepted  that,  we  should  have  to  submit  to  the  speedy  de- 
struction of  the  whole  manufacturing  interest.  But  it  is  due  to  the  subject,  that, 
in  answer  to  this  question,  the  circumstances  to  which  I  have  alluded  should  be 
briefly  explained.  At  the  time  of  the  passage  of  this  law,  the  violent  opposition 
of  many  of  our  fellow-citizens  in  the  south,  and  of  not  a  few  elsewhere,  to  the 
whole  protective  policy,  was  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  this  country.  South 
Carolina,  by  her  ordinance  of  nullification,  had  openly  defied  the  general  govern- 
ment, and  had  resolved  that  no  duties  should  be  collected  within  her  limits.  It  is 
easy,  at  this  day,  after  the  storm  has  passed  over,  to  speak  of  her  resistance  as  a 
thing  which  could  have  been  easily  crushed  by  the  exhibition  of  a  little  firmness. 
I  never  doubted,  nor  do  I  believe  that  Mr.  Clay  or  any  of  his  friends  ever  doubted, 
that  the  power  of  this  government  was  amply  sufficient  to  enforce  for  the  time  the 
collection  of  the  duties  on  imports,  in  despite  of  all  the  threatened  hostility  of 
South  Carolina,  and  all  other  enemies  of  the  protective  policy.  But  it  is  due  to 
truth  to  say,  that  at  that  time  South  Carolina  had  many  sympathizers,  and  not  a 
few  adherents,  in  other  parts  of  the  country.  We  were  every  day  in  danger  of  a 
collision  which  might  terminate  in  bloodshed;  and  in  that  event  any  man,  tolera- 
bly acquainted  with  the  American  character,  could  anticipate,  quite  as  well  as  I 
can  now  describe,  the  imminent  danger  of  a  protracted  and  bloody  contest,  which, 
if  it  did  not  endanger  the  Union,  as  I  firmly  believe  it  would  have  done,  must 
have  rendered  the  protective  system  hateful  to  our  countrymen,  as  the  exciting 
cause  of  a  civil  war,  and  incapable  of  being  maintained,  except  by  the  butchery 
of  American  citizens  by  American  hands.  I  never  did,  and  do  not  now,  believe 
that  any  such  system  can  be  long  maintained  in  a  government  like  ours,  if  it  can 
not  be  upheld  without  a  civil  war.  The  friends  of  the  compromise,  in  the  firm 
belief  that  the  protective  policy  was  entitled  to  the  confidence  and  support  of  the 
American  people,  and  would  grow  up  and  establish  itself  in  their  affections,  if  a 
violent  civil  strife  could  be  avoided,  desired,  of  all  things,  time — time  for  reason  to 
resume  her  empire — time  for  the  violent  passions  of  me'n,  then  inflamed  to  the  very 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  255 

tended  by  Messrs.  Webster,  Dallas,  Dickerson,  and  Buckner,  that 
these  words,  although  not  so  intended,  might  be  construed  by 
SOUTHERN  gentlemen,  in  1842,  as  an  abandonment  of  the  protective 
jnincijile,  and  a  design  on  the  part  of  those  who  had  introduced 

verge  of  insanity,  to  subside;  and  they  consented  to  a  gradual  reduction  of  duties 
for  a  limited  period,  with  a  view  to  the  ultimate  safety  of  the  protective  principle 
itself,  as  well  as  to  avert  the  horrors  of  a  civil  conflict,  and  to  save  the  excited 
and  deluded  men  who  were  rushing  into  these  extremities,  from  the  consequences 
of  their  own  folly.  In  the  midst  of  all  these  considerations,  then  pressing  upoa 
the  attention  of  the  friends  of  protection,  there  was  another  staring  us  in  the  face 
which  is  too  often  forgotten  or  overlooked.  At  the  very  commencement  of  the 
session  of  that  Congress  which  passed  the  act,  President  Jackson,  in  his  annual 
message,  threw  oft'  the  cloak  of  a  'judicious  tariff,' and  openly  arrayed  the  whole 
power  of  the  executive  against  the  protective  system.  Then,  for  the  first  time,  we 
heard  from  him  the  declaration,  that,  '  experience,  our  best  guide  on  this  as  on 
other  subjects,  made  it  doubtful  whether  the  advantages  of  this  system  are  not 
counterbalanced  by  many  evils,  and  whether  it  did  not  tend  to  beget,  in  the  minds 
of  a  large  portion  of  our  countiymen,  a  spirit  of  discontent  and  jealousy,  danger- 
ous to  the  stability  of  the  Union ,-'  that  '  a  tariff  designed  for  perpetual  protection 
had  entered  into  the  minds  of  but  few  of  our  statesmen,  and  that  the  most  they 
had  anticipated  was  a  temporary  protection;'  and  that  'those  who  took  an  en- 
larged view  of  the  condition  of  our  country,  must  be  satisfied  that  the  policy  of 
protection  must  be  ultimately  limited  to  those  articles  of  domestic  manufacture 
which  are  indispensable  to  our  safety  in  time  of  war.' 

"  These  and  many  other  declarations  against  the  existing  tariff,  in  the  president's 
annual  message,  almost  instantaneously  arrayed  the  mass  of  his  party  against  the 
protective  policy  throughout  the  whole  country.  It  required  no  gifted  seer  to 
predict  its  fate,  if  some  conciliatory  measure  were  not  speedily  adopted  by  its 
friends  to  allay  the  existing  excitement.  The  president's  message  against  the 
tariff  was  communicated  to  Congress,  at  that  session,  on  the  fourth  of  December; 
and  with  such  expedition  did  his  party  in  the  house  of  representatives  act  on  that 
occasion,  in  pursuance  of  his  suggestions,  that  on  the  28th  of  the  same  month, 
the  committee  of  ways  and  means  reported  a  bill  to  repeal  the  existing  tariff,  and 
in  lieu  thereof,  to  collect  a  revenue  of  but  $12,500,000  by  all  imposts  on  foreign 
merchandise,  the  average  duty  on  which,  as  proposed  by  the  bill,  was  about  15  per 
per  cent.,  and  that,  to  be  assessed  on  the  foreign  valuation.  This  bill,  which  has 
sometimes  been  called  Mr.  Verplanck's  bill,  but  which  was  really  a  measure  ema- 
nating from  the  executive,  was  actually  far  advanced  on  its  passage  in  the  house, 
at  the  time  the  compromise  was  under  consideration  in  the  senate,  and  its  final 
passage  in  the  house  was  no  longer  problematical.  It  was  a  measure  which,  if 
successful,  could  not  fail  to  prove  an  immediate  death-blow  to  the  whole  protective 
policy.  Its  passage  had  been  forced  through  the  committee  of  the  whole  on  the 
state  of  the  Union,  after  an  ineffectual  effort  by  the  friends  of  American  industry 
to  impede  its  progress  ;  when,  on  the  23d  of  February,  1833,  the  friends  of  pro- 
tection in  the  senate  made  the  last  effort  in  their  power  to  arrest  its  downward 
tendency,  and  to  stay,  for  as  long  a  time  as  possible,  the  hand  which  was  extended 
for  its  destruction.  At  that  critical  moment,  the  question  for  them  to  consider  was 
not  merely  how  much  protection  was  necessary  for  home  labor, but  how  much  of  it 
could  be  saved.  The  bill  in  the  house,  backed  as  it  was  by  the  power  of  the  exec- 
utive, and  the  public  sentiment  in  its  favor  daily  increasing,  in  consequence  of  the 
president's  denunciations  of  the  then  existing  tariff,  might  be  temporarily  arrested 
by  the  action  of  a  few  senators  ;  but  those  very  few  senators  saw,  that  unless 
some  compromise  could  be  effected,  while  they  retained  their  slender  and  very 
precarious  majority  in  the  senate,  the  ultimate  triumph  of  the  destructive  system, 
and  that,  too,  at  no  distant  day,  was  inevitable. 

"  Time  can  never  efface  my  vivid  remembrance  of  the  anxious  responsibility 
felt  by  myself,  and  those  who  acf^d  with  me  at  that  moment.      «  «  • 

I  then  thought,  and  still  think,  that  the  mighty  effort  of  Mr.  Clay  on  that  occa- 
sion to  save  his  favorite  measuie  from  the  danger  which  threatened  it  from  every 
quarter,  was  the  most  triump'.ant  act  of  his  life. 

"  A-fXei  a  most  exciting  dc;bate  on  the  merits  of  the  bill,  a  great  part  of  which 
was  never  published,  in  consequence  of  the  feeling  into  which  friends  had  been 
betrayed,  who  had  always,  before  that,  acted  together  on  this  subject,  the  question 


256  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

this  bill,  to  make  revenue  alone  the  standard  of  all  future  duties  on 

imports. 

"  Mr.  Clayton  and  Mr.  Clay  regarded  the  language  as  author- 
izing NO  SUCH  construction,  and  denied  that  any  one  would 

was  taken  on  the  engrossment  of  the  hill,  on  the  night  of  Saturday,  the  23d  of 
February,  1833,  and  it  was  ordered  to  a  third  reading  in  the  senate  by  an  over- 
whelming majority.  At  this  stage,  we  arrested  further  proceedings  in  the  senate, 
in  consequence  of  the  constitutional  difficulty  of  originating  a  revenue  bill  in  that 
body.  But  we  had  secured  our  object,  by  thus  indicating  to  the  house  the  meas- 
ure to  which  we  were  disposed  to  accede.  On  the  Monday  following,  being  the 
25th  of  February,  a  successful  motion  was  made  in  the  house  to  strike  out  the 
whole  of  Mr.  Verplanck's  bill,  and  substitute  the  compromise  in  lieu  of  it.  The 
bill  thus  amended  was  ordered  to  be  engrossed  for  a  third  reading  on  the  same 
dav,  and  shortly  after  became  the  law  of  the  land. 

"It  is  too  late  now,  after  the  experience  the  nation  has  had  of  General  Jack- 
son's influence  while  president,  to  pretend  that  it  was  not  in  his  power  in  1833  to 
have  crushed  the  protective  policy.  His  ])arty  was  in  the  zenith  of  its  power.  He 
vetoed  the  bank  bill  in  July,  1832,  and,  within  six  months  after  that,  he  made  war 
on  the  tariff.  Can  any  reasonable  man  doubt  what  would  have  been  its  fate,  if 
Henry  Clav,  with  all  the  aflection  of  a  parent  for  the  protective  policy,  had  not 
rescued  it  h-om  destruction  by  the  compromise  act  of  the  2d  of  March,  1833  ?  But 
for  the  interposition  of  Mr."  Clay,  the  passage  of  the  bill  reported  by  the  com- 
mittee of  ways  and  means  in  the  house,  would,  at  no  very  distant  day,  have  been 
inevitable.  What  might  have  been  the  fate  of  the  Union,  I  leave  others  to  con- 
jecture.    ]\Iy  business  now  is  with  the  tariff  alone,  and  I  confine  myself  to  that. 

"  Henry  Clay  was  at  the  head  of  the  committee  which  reported  the  compromise 
act.     Janies  K.'  Polk,  of  Tennessee,  was  at  the  tail  of  the  committee  of  ways  and 
means  in  the  house,  which  reported  the  bill  to  which  I  have  referred.     To  under- 
stand Mr.  Polk,  it  is  now  necefsary  to  understand  that  bill.     Although  he  was  the 
last-named  member  on  that  committee,  and  in  the  rear  of  the  column  which  at- 
tacked the  tarifl',  there  was  no  more  thorough-going,  no  more  denunciatory  enemy 
of  the  protective  policy,  than  James  K.   Polk.     But  let  us  try  him  by   the    bill 
which  he  and  his  colieaiues  on  that  committee  reported,  and   by  his  votes,  as 
they  stand  recorded   on   the  journals   of  Congress  against  the  protective  policy. 
This  bill,  which  will  be  found  to  be  the  14th  document  in  the  volume  of  reports 
of  committees,  at  the  second  session  of  the  twenty-second  Congress,  reduces  the 
duties  on  the  2d  March,  1835,  as  follows— all  assessable,  be  it  remembered,  o«  the 
foreign  valuatim :  On  uooUens,  to  15  per  cent.;   on  all  not  exceeding  35  cents 
the  square  yard,  5  per  cent. ;  on  worsted  stuff  goods  of  all  kinds,  10  per  cent.; 
on  worsted  and  woollen  hosiery,   gloves,  nets,  bindings,  and   stockinets,  10  per 
cent.;  on  all  other  cloths,  merino  shawls,  flannels,  baizes  and  cassimeres,  carpet- 
ings  and  rugs  of  all  kinds,  20  per  cent. ;   on  clothing,  ready  made,  of  all  descrip- 
tions, 20  per  cent.  ;  on  all  coiion  goofJs,  20  per  cent.,  except  Nankins  from  India, 
on  which  Mr.  Polk's  duty  was  15  percent. ;  and  cotton  hosiery,  gloves,  mitts,  and 
stockinets,  on  which  his  duty  was  10  per  cent. ;  as  well  as  upon  cotton  twist,  yarn, 
and  thread;  on  all  manufactures  oi  flax  and  hemp,  or  sail-duck  and  cotton-bag- 
ging, 15  per  cent.;  on  all  manufactures  of  tin,  japanning,  gilt,  plated,  brass,  and 
polished  steel,  20  per  cent.;  on  common  saddlery,  10  per  cent.;   on  earthen  and 
stone  ware,  20  per  cent. ;  on  all  side  and  fire  arms,  rifles   and  muskets,  20  per 
cent. ;  bridle-bits  and  glass-ware,  20  per  cent. ;  on  manufactures  of  iron  and  steel 
generally,  a  duty  of  20  per  cent. ;  on  salt  and  coal,  5  per  cent. ;  on  everything 
produced  by  the  farmer  in  the  middle  and  northern  states,  Mr.  Polk,  who  is  a  cot- 
ton-grower, recommended,  in  this  bill,  one  unvarying  standard  of  only  15   per 
cent. ;    15  per  cent,  on  potatoes;    15  pet  cent,  on  oats;   15  per  cent,  on  wheat  and 
wheat-flour,  butter,  bacon,  beef,  and  pork. 

"  Such  was  the  character  of  that  bill,  from  the  passage  of  which  Henry  Clay 
saved  the  country  by  the  adoption  of  the  compromise.  Had  a  tornado  passed  over 
all  the  manufacturing  establishments  of  the  country  at  that  time,  it  would  scarcely 
have  proved  a  greater  curse  than  that  measure,  which  had  the  earnest  support  of 
Mr.  James  K.  Polk,  of  Tennessee.  By  reducing  the  duty  on  wool  to  15  per  cent., 
it  put  the  knife  to  the  throat  of  every  sheep  in  the  country.  By  a  duty  of  20  per 
cent,  on  ready-made  clothing  of  all  descriptions,  it  struck  down  a  whole  class  of 
the  most  industrious  and  useful  mechanics  of  the  nation.     If  it  had  been  a  bill 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  257 

be  justified  in  inferring  that  there  was  to  be  any  abandonment  of 
the  system  of  protection.  It  was  insisted  by  Mr.  Clayton,  tJiat  the 
government  could  not  be  kept  together,  if  the  principle  of  protection 
were  to  be  discarded  in  our  policy ;  and  he  declared  that  he 

purposely  designed  to  set  fire  to  most  of  the  mechanic  shops  in  the  country,  it 
would  hardly  have  had  a  worse  efl'ect  upon  the  laboring  classes.  It  would  have 
fed  us  on  potatoes  from  Ireland  ;  and,  at  those  periods  when  the  farmers  of  the 
middle  and  northern  states  were  suffering  most  from  the  pressure  of  the  times, 
our  bread-stuffs  would  have  been  grown  on  the  borders  of  the  Baltic  and  the 
Black  sea,  instead  of  on  our  own  soil. 

"  Search  the  records  of  Congress,  and  you  will  find  that,  in  every  instance 
where  the  American  system  was  attacked,  while  he  was  in  Congress,  he  was  its 
assailant,  its  constant  and  uncompromising  foe.  On  the  23d  of  June,  1832,  he 
voted  for  the  motion  of  Mr.  McDuffie,  of  South  Carolina,  to  reduce  the  duty  on 
cotton  goods,  costing  not  exceeding  fifteen  cents  the  square  yard,  to  Vl\  per  cent. 
ad  valorem.  On  the  same  day,  he  voted  for  Mr.  McDuffie's  motion  to  abolish  the 
duty  of  $30  per  ton  on  rolled  iron.  On  the  previous  day,  he  voted  to  reduce  the 
duty  on  salt  to  5  cents  on  56  lbs.,  and  voted  against  the  duly  on  boots  and  bootees, 
on  cabinet  wares,  hats  and  caps,  whips,  bridles,  saddles,  carriages  and  parts  of 
carriages,  blank  books,  earthen  and  stonewares,  and  manufactures  of  marble; 
and  also  against  the  duty  on  wool. 

"  On  the  28th  day  of  February,  1834,  within  one  year  after  the  passage  of  the 
compromise,  Mr.  Hall,  of  North  C'arolina,  in  the  house  of  representatives  of  the 
United  States,  introduced  a  resolution,  the  object  of  which  was  to  procure  from 
the  committee  of  ways  and  means  a  report  of  a  plan,  accompanied  by  a  bill  to  re- 
peal the  protection  guarantied  by  the  compromise,  under  the  pretext  of  immedi- 
ately reducing  the  revenue  to  the  necessary  expenses  of  the  government;  and 
James  K.  Polk,  of  Tennessee,  who  was  at  tliat  time  the  chairman  of  that  very 
committee  of  ways  and  means,  voted  for  that  resolution.  There  were  69  yeas 
in  favor  of  that  resolution,  and  115  nays  against  it.  In  voting  for  the  resolution, 
the  deliberate  design  of  which  was  to  violate  all  the  pledges  given  in  the  compro- 
mise, Mr.  Polk  was  backed  by  six  of  the  nine  members  of  that  same  committee, 
and  by  all  the  nullifiers  and  ultra  anti-tariff  men  in  the  house.  This  movement 
shows  the  dissatisfaction  with  the  compromise  cherished  at  an  early  period  by  the 
enemies  of  protection.  They  were  sensible  that  Mr.  Clay  had  triumphed,  by  the 
salvation  of  his  favorite  policy  ;  and  the  strength  of  the  vote  against  the  resolu- 
tion, shows  how  great  that  triumph  was-  But  one  year  previous  to  the  introduc- 
tion of  Mr.  Hall's  resolution,  it  would  liave  passed  the  house  by  an  overwhelming 
majority.  The  votes  on  Mr.  Verplanck's  bill  at  that  time,  proved  that  conclu- 
sively. But  the  fact  is,  that  the  evil  spirit  of  the  storm — the  spirit  of  disunion — 
which  had  been  raised  by  nullification,  had  been  subdued  by  that  master  spirit, 
which,  for  thirty  years,  had  exercised  so  great  an  influence  in  our  public  councils. 
That  same  master  spirit  had  quelled  the  same  demon,  at  the  great  crisis  of  the 
Missouri  compromise.  On  both  occasions,  Henry  Clay  saved  the  Union ;  and,  in 
the  judgment  of  many,  in  each  of  them,  he  saved  the  Union  at  its  last  gasp. 

"  But  the  vote  of  James  K.  Polk  and  his  allies  in  the  war  on  domestic  industry, 
was  not  the  first  exhibition  of  their  hostility  to  the  compromise.  Within  six  weeks 
after  the  passage  of  the  act,  the  executive  of  the  United  States  began  to  violate 
its  true  spirit  and  its  legitimate  construction,  for  the  purpose  of  breaking  down 
our  American  policy.  On  the  20th  of  April,  1833,  the  secretary  of  the  treasury 
under  President  Jackson,  issued  his  famous  treasury  circular  to  all  the  officers  of 
the  customs  in  the  United  States.  That  circular  contained  an  executive  decree,  ab- 
rogating all  the  specific  duties  and  the  whole  system  of  minimums  in  the  existing 
tariff  laws.  Under  a  pretext  as  foreign  from  the  views  of  oil  the  men  with  whom 
I  acted  in  the  passage  of  that  law,  as  anything  the  most  remote,  this  arbitrary 
edict  declared,  without  one  syllable  in  the  act  to  support  it,  that  it  was  our  inten- 
tion, in  passing  it,  to  repeal  these  specific  duties  and  minimums.  It  is  scarcely 
possible  that  any  human  being  could  have  been  so  ignorant  as  not  to  know  that  a 
specific  duty  could  at  any  time  be  as  well  ascertained  as  an  ad-valorem  duty,  and 
that  these  duties  were  convertible.  By  the  compromise,  we  simply  provided,  that 
all  existing  duties  (whether  specific  or  ad  valorem)  should  be  reduced  according 
to  a  fixed  ratio.  This  outrage  on  the  law,  which,  because  the  executive,  whose 
province  it  was  to  collect  the  duties,  had  perpetrated  it,  was  utterly  without  rem- 

VoL.  II.— 17 


253     ,  THE    PROTECTIVE    FOLIC V 

WOULD    PAUSE     BEFORE    HE    SURRENDERED     THAT    PRINCIPLE, 
EVEN  TO  SAVE    THE   UNION." 

James  K.  Polk,  in  an  address  to  the  people  of  Tennessee,  pub- 
lished at  Columbia,  his  place  of  residence,  under  his  own  super- 

edy,  proved  of  great  injury  to  all  those  manufactures  which  depended  for  protec- 
tion upon  tiie  minimums  and  specific  duties. 

"The  injury  inflicted  on  the  manufacturing  interest  did  not  admit  of  legal  re- 
dress, for  the  friends  of  protection  could  not  by  any  possibility  bring  the  question 
before  any  judicial  tribunal,  while  the  executive  officers  refused  to  sue  for  or  col- 
lect llie  duties  in  pursuance  of  their  instructions.  Nothing  remained  for  us  to  do 
but  to  submit  in  silence,  until  the  returning  sense  of  justice  to  the  country  should 
induce  the  people  to  drive  the  enemies  of  domestic  industry  t'rom  the  high  places 
of  the  repuljlic.  »  «  *  Although  they  continued  in  power  from  the  passage 
of  that  law  [compromise  act]  until  the  year  1841,  they  never  attempted,  in  a  sin- 
gle instance,  to  provide,  either  by  prospective  legislation  or  by  any  executive  reg- 
ulation, for  any  mode  of  assessing  duties  on  the  home  valuation ;  nor  did  they  at- 
tempt to  pass  a  law  raising  the  duties,  prospectively,  after  the  30th  of  June,  1842, 
to  the  real  wants  of  the  government;  although  they  knew,  as  well  through  the 
whole  session  of  Congress  of  1840-'41,  as  we  know  now,  one  or  both  of  these 
measures  ought  to  be  prospectively  adopted,  to  save  the  government  from  the  dan- 
ger of  bankruptcy.  The  principle  of  the  home  valuation  was  a  sine  qua  non,  at 
the  time  of  the  passage  of  the  act,  witli  many  of  those  who,  like  myself,  voted  for 
it  for  the  purpose  avowed  by  me  at  the  time,  of  saving  the  protective  policy.  We 
considered  that  a  vote  for  the  duties  fixed  by  the  act,  to  be  assessed  on  this  princi- 
ple, was  essentially,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  a  vote  hr  protection ;  and  we  de- 
termined, therefore,  to  compel  Mr.  Calhoun  and  his  peculiar  friends  in  the  senate 
to  record  their  votes,  in  the  most  unequivocal  form,  on  the  journal  in  favor  of  that 
principle.  And  here  I  can  not  help  complaining  of  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Calhoun, 
after  the  passage  of  this  law,  and  especially  after  the  period  when  most  of  us 
friendly  to  the  protective  policy,  who  had  voted  with  him  for  its  passage,  had  left 
the  senate  of  the  United  States.  How  well  his  conduct  comported  with  that  feel- 
ing which  a  man,  who  had  received  at  our  hands  a  shelter  from  the  storm  which 
threatened  to  annihilate  him,  should  exhibit,  I  leave  for  him  and  others  who  are 
in  the  same  category  to  determine.  To  explain  his  conduct  I  must  refer  to  a  few 
facts. 

"  While  the  motion  was  pending  to  amend  the  bill  by  directing  the  assessment 
of  the  duties  on  the  home  value,  a  debate  sprung  up,  in  the  course  of  which  Mr. 
Calhoun  repeatedly  argued  that  the  amendment  was  unconstitutional,  and  declared 
that  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  vote  for  it.  A  number  of  tariff  senators,  friendly 
to  the  compromise  act,  with  whom  I  was  acting  in  concert,  including,  among  oth- 
ers, Samuel  Bell,  of  New  Hampshire,  A.  Naudain,  of  Delaware,  Samuel  Foote, 
of  Connecticut,  and  John  Holmes,  of  Maine,  had  resolved  to  compel  all  the  anti- 
protectionists  in  the  senate  to  vote  for  that  amendment,  in  every  stage  of  its  pas- 
sage, or  to  defeat  the  bill  by  laying  it  on  the  table.  We  foresaw  all  the  objections 
which  have  been  since  made  to  the  adoption  of  that  mode  of  preventing  evasions 
of  the  law,  and  frauds  on  the  revenue;  and  we  knew  that  the  amendment  neces- 
sarily carried  with  it  protection  to  American  industry.  It  was  an  unpleasant  pre- 
scrii)tion  for  Mr.  Calhoun  ;  but  it  was  not  ill-adapted  to  the  peculiar  disease  un- 
der which  he  labored.  After  he  had  frequently  announced  his  unalterable  deter- 
mination to  vote  against  the  amendment,  which  he  as  often  said  it  would  be 
a  violation  of  the  constitution,  and  against  his  conscience  to  support,  a  motion  was 
made — and  by  myself— to  lay  the  whole  bill  on  the  table;  and,  on  the  part  of 
friends,  I  avowed  our  determination  not  to  suffer  it  to  be  called  up  again  during 
the  session.  At  the  request  of  a  nullifying  senator,  I  withdrew  that  motion,  to 
give  himself  and  his  friends  time  to  reflect  further;  but,  at  the  same  time,  they 
were  distinctly  given  to  understand,  that,  unless  they  agreed  to  vote  for  the  amend- 
ment, at  every  stage  of  its  passage,  the  motion  should  be  renewed,  and  the  bill 
nailed  to  the  table ;  in  which  event,  they  must  fight  it  out  with  the  general  gov- 
ernment. Those  who  are  curious  to  consult  the  debates  in  Congress  at  that  day, 
will  see,  by  recurring  to  them,  that,  on  the  next  day,  when  the  bill  was  taken  up 
again,  every  man  among  them,  every  enemy  of  the  tariff  in  the  senate,  including 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  '  259 

Vision,  and  dated  April  3,  1S39,  when  he  was  a  candidate  for 
governor,  employs  the  following  language,  In  allusion  to  the  com- 
promise act,  thereby  indicating  the  object  contemplated  by  the 
measure  : — 

"  The  great  results  of  General  Jackson's  administration  be- 
long to  the  history  of  the  country,  and  can  be  but  briefly 
sketched  or  alluded  to  In  an  address  like  this.  In  repeated  in- 
stances, he  recommended  modiJicatio?is  and  redvctions  of  the  tariff, 

WITH  A  VIEW    TO    THE    FINAL    ABANDONMENT    OF  THE  ODIOUS 

AND  UNJUST  SYSTEM.  So  effecttial  were  these  recommendations, 
and  so  rapid  the  change  of  public  opinion,  that  the  friends  of  the 
tariff,  and  even  Mr.  Clay,  its  reputed  father,  seized  on  a 

FAVORABLE  MOMENT  TO  SAVE  THE  WHOLE  FROM  DESTRUC- 
TION, BY  A  TIMELY  COMPROMISE.  It  was  the  defence  of  Mr. 
Clay  with  his  friends  at  the  north,  that,  by  yielding  a  part,  he 
PREVENTED  THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  WHOLE  ;  and  In  their 
continued  and  devoted  support  of  him,  the  northern  capitalists  have 
shown  that  they  are  grateful  for  the  fortunate  rescue." 

The  following  letter  from  Mr.  Clay,  to  the  Hon.  John  M.  Clay- 
ton, Is  especially  pertinent  here  : — 

"  Blue  Licks,  August  22,  1844. 

"  My  dear  sir:  Your  supposition  is  right  as  to  the  oppressive 
extent  of  my  correspondence.  It  Is  utterly  impossible  to  answer 
all  the  letters  which  I  receive.  I  am  afraid  that  I  can  not  reply  to 
many  that  deserve  It.  Mr.  Madison  once  remarked  to  me,  that 
Mr.  Jefferson's  correspondents  were  killing  him  ;  but  they  were 
furnished  by  a  population  of  about  ten  millions.  Mine  are  supplied 
by  a  population  of  near  twenty  millions.  #  #  * 

"  I  request  you  to  attribute  to  the  above  cause,  my  omission  to 
express  to  you  before  the  satisfaction  I  derived  from  the  perusal 
of  your  admirable  speech  on  the  compromise  law.  No  man  knew 
better  the  motives  and  considerations  which  prompted  Its  passage 
than  you  did,  and  you  have  ably  and  truly  exposed  them.      We 

the  honorable  John  C.  Calhoun,  of  South  Carolina,  voted  for  the  amendment  ! 
His  vote  for  the  home  valuation  stands  recorded  on  the  journals  of  the  senate,  at 
every  stage  of  the  passage  of  the  bill;  and  he  contented  himself  at  the  time, 
as  he  declared,  during  the  passasre  of  the  tariff  of  1842  (when  this  vote  was 
invoked  in  judgment  against  him  by  a  tariff  senator),  by  saying  that  he  voted 
for  it  UNDER  AN  ORAL  PROTEST  !  It  is  truc,  that  promises  made  under  the  fear 
of  death,  are  not  binding  in  law;  but  it  would  be  utterly  inadmissible  to  suppose 
that  Mr.  Calhoun  acted  under  duress  ;  and  it  would  be  equally  inadmissible  to 
suppose  that  his  vote  was  given  with  a  view  to  procure  the  votes  of  others,  then 
necessary  for  his  own  safety — because  such  a  vote  would  have  been  a  palpable 
fraud  upon  them,  if,  at  the  time,  he  meditated  an  evasion  of  the  pledge  given  in 
the  amendment. 

"  Two  days  after  the  passage  of  this  bill.  Congress  adjourned  ;  and,  in  less 
than  three  months,  we  learned,  to  our  perfect  astonishment,  from  the  public 
prints,  that  Mr.  Calhoun  was,  in  South  Carolina,  exulting  among  his  followers  on 
account  of  what  he  called  his  triumph  over  Henry  Clay  !" 

m 


2G0  THE     PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

were  upon  terms  of  the  most  confidential  intimacy  and  friendship. 
You  daily,  in  the  senate,  sat  near  me.  You  knew  of  my  consuha- 
tions  with  the  practical  manufacturers,  and  their  coincidence  in 
opinion  with  us.  I  believe  it  was  upon  your  invitation,  that  the 
lamented  Dupont  came  from  Delaware,  and  conferred  with  us. 
Upon  more  occasions  than  one,  while  gazing  upon  the  careworn 
countenances  and  haggard  looks  of  some  of  the  delegation  in 
Congress  from  South  Carolina,  you  said  to  me  :  '  Clay,  these  are 
fine  fellows.  It  won't  do  to  let  old  Jackson  hang  them.  We 
must  save  them.'  You  lived  in  a  mess  of  some  seven  or  eight 
senators,  and  it  was  your  mess  that  insisted  upon  the  home  valua- 
tion, as  a  sine  qua  /ion.  Mr.  Calhoun  opposed  it.  Your  mess 
persevered.  The  fate  of  the  bill  was  threatened  ;  but  he,  at  the 
last  moment,  withdrew  his  opposition,  and  the  bill  finally  passed. 

"  I  have  again  and  again  asserted,  on  the  floor  of  the  senate,  that 
two  objects  were  aimed  to  be  accomplished.  One  was  to  avert  the 
civil  war  ;  the  other  w^as  to  preserve  the  policy  of  protection.  It 
was  threatened  by  Mr.  Verplanck's  bill  with  total  subversion  ;  and 
I  believed  then,  and  believe  now,  that,  if  the  compromise  had  not 
passed,  at  the  next  session  of  Congress  all  traces  of  that  policy 
would  have  been  effaced  from  the  statute-book. 

"  You  and  I  both  maintained,  that  the  measure  of  the  protection 
preserved  by  the  compromise  would  be  sufficient  until  about  1842. 
But  we  were  taunted  by  our  opponents,  to  know  what  would  be  its 
condition  wiien  that  period  arrived.  We  replied,  there  were  the 
home  valuation,  cash  duties,  a  long  list  of  free  articles,  &c.  But 
I  said,  also:  'Let  us  take  care  of  ourselves  now;  the  people  of  1842 
may  be  trusted  to  take  care  of  themselves.  Public  opinion,  in  the 
meantime,  may  become  more  enlightened,  and  the  wisdom  of  the 
protective  policy  may  be  demonstrated.'  I  have  not  been  disap- 
pointed ;  my  predictions  have  been  fulfilled.  The  people  of  1842 
— the  whigs,  at  least,  everywhere,  and  many  of  the  democrats — 
are  now  fully  persuaded  that  the  industry  of  this  great  country 
ought  not  to  be  prostrated  at  the  feet  of  foreign  powers.  Every- 
where the  cry  is  for  a  tariff  for  revenue,  with  discriminations  for 
protection.  Everywhere  the  preservation  of  the  tariff  of  1842, 
which  has  worked  so  well,  and  is  delivering  us  from  embarrass- 
ments, is  loudly  demanded. 

"  The  circumstances  which  led  to,  or  attended,  the  enactment 
of  the  compromise,  may  be  curious  and  interesting  as  matters  of 
history  ;  but,  in  respect  to  the  policy  of  protection,  the  great,  prac- 
tical, absorbing  question  is,  shall  the  tariff'  of  1842  be  preserved 
or  repealed?  That  question  is  to  be  solved  in  November  next.  I 
have  repeatedly  expressed  my  opinion  nnequivocallij  in  favor  of  it. 

'*  I  thought  we  achieved  a  great  triumph  in  placing  the  protective 
policy,  by  the  compromise  act,  without  the  reach  and  beyond  the 
term  of  General  Jackson's  administration.     And  we  availed  our- 


THE    COMPROMISE    TARIFF.  261 

selves  of  the  fact,  that  the  South  Carolina  delegation  were  much 
more  anxious  that  the  difficulty  should  be  setded  by  us  than  by 
General  Jackson. 

"  You  tell  me  that  I  am  accused  of  having  abandoned  the  pro- 
tective policy.  That  would  distress  me  exceedingly,  if  I  were  not 
accused  of  all  sorts  of  crimes  and  misdemeanors.  I  believe  I  have 
been  charged  vvitli  every  crime  enumerated  in  the  decalogue.  I 
laugh  at  the  straits  to  which  my  opponents  are  driven.  They  are 
to  be  pitied.  Shrinking  from  all  the  issues,  arising  out  of  the  great 
quesdons  of  national  policy,  which  have  hitherto  divided  the  coun- 
try, they  have  no  other  refuge  left,  but  in  personal  abuse,  detrac- 
tion, and  defamation.  I  have  lived  down  these  attacks  heretofore, 
and,  with  the  blessing  of  Providence,  1  hope  to  survive  those  which 
they  are  now  directing  against  me.  Most  certainly,  my  surprise  at 
the  attempt  to  make  me  out  a  friend  of  free  trade  with  foreign 
countries,  and  an  opponent  of  the  protective  policy,  ought  not  to 
to  be  greater  than  that  of  my  competitor  at  the  effort  to  establish 
his  friendship  to  the  protective  policy. 

"  I  remain,  always  truly  and  faithfully,  your  friend, 

"  Henry  Clay. 

"  Hon.  J.  M.  Clayton." 

It  will  now  be  seen — 1,  that  the  compromise  law  saved  the 
protective  policy ;  2,  that  the  land  bill,  pocketed  and  strangled 
by  General  Jackson,  was  a  bona  fide  part  of  the  compromise  act, 
and  indispensable  to  make  the  law  fully  effective  ;  3,  that,  in  the 
administration  of  this  law,  the  federal  executive  gready  impaired 
it,  in  several  essendal  pardculars,  and,  in  some  instances,  violated 
it ;  4,  that  several  attempts  were  made,  in  bad  faith,  during  the 
term  of  its  existence,  to  disturb  it,  and  break  it  down  ;  5,  and 
consequently,  that,  in  the  observance  of  good  faith,  on  the  part  of 
the  national  executive  and  other  parties,  this  law  would,  in  all  prob- 
ability, have  proved  amply  sufficient,  throughout  the  period  for 
which  it  was  enacted  ;  6,  that,  since  this  law,  thus  impaired,  thus 
violated,  and  thus  assailed,  did,  notwithstanding,  actually  save  the 
protective  policy,  its  power  to  accomplish  its  intended  objects,  and 
consequently  its  beneficence,  are  fully  demonstrated. 

The  importance  of  this  measure  as  an  item  of  political  history, 
and  Mr.  Clay's  relations  to  it,  seemed  to  impose  imperadve  claims 
for  the  full  exposition  of  the  subject,  which  has  been  attempted  in 
the  foregoing  pages. 

It  was  during  the  debate  on  the  compromise,  that  a  reconcilia- 
tion took  place  between  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Randolph,  on  the  floor 


262  MR.    CLAY    AND    MR.    RANDOLPH. 

of  the  senate- chamber,  when  Mr.  Randolph  was  in  a  very  low 
state  of  health,  the  fact  and  circumstances  of  which  are  pleasant  to 
record. 

In  a  private  letter  to  Judge  Brooke,  dated  Washington,  April 
19,  1826,  after  Mr.  Clay's  duel  with  Mr.  Randolph,  he  says  : — 

"  Prior  to  my  going  out  on  that  affair,  the  only  letter  I  wrote 
about  it,  was  addressed  to  you,  and  put  into  the  hands  of  General 
Harrison,  to  be  forwarded,  on  a  contingency  which  did  not  hap- 
pen. In  that  letter,  which  he  still  retains,  I  briefly  assigned  the 
reasons  which  determined  me  on  the  course  I  took.  The  circum- 
stance which  most  embarrassed  me,  was  the  opinion  which  is 
entertained  by  some,  as  to  the  state  of  Mr.  Randolph's  mind. 
But  I  thought  I  ought  not  to  be  governed  by  that  opinion,  which 
was  opposed  by  the  recent  act  of  my  native  state  electing  him  to 
the  senate." 

In  another  private  letter  to  Judge  Brooke,  dated  Washington, 
March  11,  1833,  Mr.  Clay  makes  allusion  to  his  reconciliation  to 
Mr.  Randolph,  as  follows  : — 

"  You  ask  how  amity  was  restored  between  Mr.  Randolph  and 
me?  There  was  no  explanation,  no  intervention.  Observing  him 
in  the  senate  one  night,  feeble,  and  looking  as  if  he  were  not  long 
for  this  world,  and  being  myself  engaged  in  a  work  of  peace  [the 
compromise  tariff],  with  corresponding  feelings,  I  shook  hands 
with  him.  The  salutation  was  cordial  on  both  sides.  I  afterward 
left  a  card  at  his  lodgings,  where,  I  understand,  he  has  been  con- 
fined by  sickness." 

The  following  anecdote  doubtless  relates  to  the  time  of  this 
reconciliation.  Mr.  Randolph  was  carried  to  the  senate  chamber, 
by  his  own  request,  though  very  feeble,  during  the  debate  on  the 
compromise  bill,  when  Mr.  Clay  was  expected  to  speak.  As  Mr. 
Clay  rose  to  address  the  senate,  Mr.  Randolph  said  to  a  friend 
that  stood  by  him  :  "  Help  me  up — help  me  up.  I  came  here  to 
hear  that  voice." 

Charles  James  Faulkner,  Esq.,  of  Martinsburg,  Virginia,  in  a 
speech  at  Gerardstown,  ascribed  to  Mr.  Randolph  the  following 
sentiments,  uttered  in  Buckingham  county,  in  an  address  to  the 
public,  during  the  pendency  of  nullification  : — 

"  '  Gentlemen,  I  am  filled  with  the  most  gloomy  apprehensions 
for  the  fate  of  the  Union.  1  can  not  express  to  you  how  deeply  I 
am  penetrated  with  a  sense  of  the  danger  which  at  this  moment 
threatens  its  existence.  If  Madison  filled  the  executive  chair,  he 
might  be  bullied  into  some  compromise.    If  Monroe  was  in  power, 


MR.    CLAY    AND    MR.    RANDOLPH.  2G3 

he  might  be  coaxed  into  some  adjustment  of  the  difficulty.  But 
Jackson  is  obstinate,  headstrong,  and  fond  of  fight.  1  fear  matters 
must  come  to  an  open  rupture.  Tf  so,  this  Union  is  gone.'  Then 
pausing  for  near  a  minute,  raising  his  finger  in  that  emphatic  man- 
ner so  pecuhar  to  his  action  as  a  speaker,  and  seeming,  as  it  were, 
to  breathe  more  freely,  he  continued  :  '  There  is  one  man,  and  one 
man  only,  who  can  save  this  Union.  That  man  is  Henry  Clay. 
I  know  he  has  the  poiver — I  believe  he  will  hefoimd  to  have  the  pa- 
triotism andjirmness  equal  to  the  occasion.''  "* 

•When  the  Missouri  question  was  pendinsj,  in  1821,  at  the  moment  of  the  great- 
est excitement  in  Congress,  Mr.  Randolpli  and  a  few  others  from  the  slaveholding 
states,  had  conceived  the  project  of  the  whole  of  the  representation  from  those 
states  formally  retiring  in  a  body  from  the  house,  and  leaving  it  in  the  exclusive 
possession  of  the  members  from  the  free  states.  One  evening,  after  candlelight, 
and  after  a  day  of  great  excitement  in  debate, — Mr.  Clay  having  temporarily  left 
the  chair,  in  consequence  of  the  sudden  illness  of  Gen.  Mercer  of  Virginia, — Mr. 
Randolph  accosted  Mr.  Clay,  and  said: — "Mr.  Speaker,  I  wish  you  would  leave 
the  chair,  and  I  will  follov/  you  to  Kentucky,  or  anywhere  else  in  the  world." 
Mr.  Clay,  who  understood  the  allusion  to  be  to  that  project,  replied,  "  Mr.  Ran- 
dolph, that  is  a  very  serious  proposal,  deserving  of  the  gravest  consideration.  I 
have  not  time  now  to  converse  with  you  about  it;  but  if  you  will  call  to-morrow 
morning,  at  the  speaker's  room,  we  will  talk  it  over."  He  accordingly  called,  and 
an  hour's  interview  took  place  between  them.  Mr.  R.  insisted  that  "  there  ought 
to  be  no  compromise  ;  that  the  south  was  right,  and  the  north  wrong  ;  that  slavery 
would  sooner  or  later  break  up  the  Union  ;  that  we  might  as  well  meet  the  ques- 
tion now ;  and  that,  if  it  led  to  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,  the  north  alone  would 
be  responsible  for  that  event."  Mr.  Clay,  concurring  with  Mr.  R.  in  opinion, 
that  "  no  restriction  ought  to  be  imposed  on  the  state  of  Missouri,  but  that,  like 
the  other  states,  she  ought  to  be  left  free  to  decide  for  herself  the  question  of 
slavery,  differed  entirely  from  him  on  the  subject  of  a  compromise.  He  insisted 
that  the  Union  was  of  too  vital  importance  to  all  the  states,  to  be  hazarded,  if  it 
could  possibly  be  preserved ;  that,  if  the  question  could  be  compromised,  without 
any  sacrifice  of  principle,  it  ought  to  be  done  ;  that  he  hoped  such  a  compromise 
could  yet  be  effected;  and  that,  as  the  northern  members  were  too  firmly  commit- 
ted against  the  unconditional  admission  of  Missouri,  to  yield,  without  some  ground 
being  given  them  to  stand  upon,  he  was  in  favor  of  such  an  arrangement  of  the 
subject,  as  was  proposed  by  the  committee  of  thirteen,  according  to  which,  in  his 
opinion,  no  principle  was  violated." 

The  two  gentlemen  separated,  each  retaining  his  own  views,  and  both  accord- 
ingly so  acted  throughout  the  whole  of  that  great  and  unexampled  trial.  The  re- 
port of  the  committee  of  thirteen  was  defeated  by  the  vote  of  Mr.  Randolph  and 
two  or  three  other  southern  gentlemen,  who  concurred  with  him.  When  the  joint 
committee,  which  was  subsequently  appointed,  assembled,  Mr.  Randolph  raised 
the  question,  whether  the  chairman  of  the  senate  or  of  the  house  committee  should 
preside  ?  Mr.  Clay,  who  had  no  idea  that  a  great  subject  should  be  affected  by  a 
mere  point  of  form  or  etiquette,  obviated  the  difficulty  at  once,  by  proposing  that 
the  joint  committee  should  act  together,  but  that  the  chairman  of  each  should  pre- 
side over  his  own ;  and  that,  when  a  proposition  was  submitted,  it  should  be  pro- 
pounded to  each  committee  by  its  proper  chairman ;  and  if  agreed  to  by  both,  it 
should  be  reported  to  the  two  houses.     This  course  was  agreed  to. 

When  the  proposal  was  made,  which  was  adopted  by  the  joint  committee,  Mr. 
Clay,  who  knew  that  its  success  in  the  house,  depended  on  its  obtaining  the  sup- 
port of  a  certain  number  of  the  members  of  the  committee  from  the  free  states,  in- 
terrogated them  severally — "Will  you  vote  for  the  proposition  in  the  house,  if  it 
be  reported?" — and  a  number  sufficient  to  insure  its  success,  having  answered  in 
the  affirmative,  it  was  accordinsjly  reported. 

Throughout  the  session  of  the  joint  committee,  Mr.  Clay  displayed  the  greatest 
calmness,  solicitude,  dignity,  and  practical  ability.  Mr.  Barbour,  of  Virginia  (not 
a  warm  personal  friend  of  Mr.  Clay),  afterward  a  judge  of  the  supreme  court  of 
the  United  States,  uniformly  testified  to  the  masterly  manner  in  which  Mr.  Clay 
carried  the  measure  of  compromise  through  the  committee. 


264  MR.    CLAY    AND    MR.    RANDOLPH. 

It  is  pleasant  to  observe  tlie  happy  state  of  feeling  under  which 
the  relations  of  these  two  men  terminated.  It  is  even  a  scene  de- 
lightful to  contemplate,  variegated,  and  in  no  small  degree  toiich- 
ingly  dramatic  in  its  character.  Mr,  Randolph's  eccentricity  seemed 
often  to  border  on  insanity.  If  he  had  his  faults,  he  also  had  re- 
deeming qualities.*  It  can  hardly  be  supposed  he  was  himself  in 
seeking  a  hostile  encounter  with  Mr  Clay,  in  1S26.  Their  meet- 
ing on  that  occasion,  and  Mr.  Clay's  engagement  in  a  like  affair 
with  Humphry  Marshall,  some  twenty  years  before,  are  events  to 
be  deplored.  That  Mr.  Clay  should  have  been  accused  of  having 
a  hand  in  Cilley's  death,  when  he  sincerely  sought  to  prevent  it,  by 
dictating  a  note  for  the  very  purpose  of  opening  a  door  to  pacifica- 
tion, which  had  been  closed,  like  other  calumnies,  through  which 
he  has  been  doomed  to  pass,  originated  in  wicked  designs,  and  has 
been  sustained  by  a  like  perversity. 

*  Mr.  Randolph  often  found  or  made  difficulty  with  Mr.  Clay,  as  speaker  of  the 
house  of  representatives,  and,  being  in  the  wrong,  it  worked  hard  on  his  undisci- 
plined temper  and  habits.  Mr.  Clay  was  once  obliged,  or  thought  proper,  to  de- 
fend himself  in  the  National  Intelligencer,  for  one  of  his  decisions  as  speaker,  of 
which  Mr.  Randolph  had  complained  in  a  public  address  to  his  constituents.  At 
the  end  of  the  interview  on  the  Missouri  question,  Mr.  Clay  took  occasion  to  ex- 
press his  regret,  for  the  unpleasant  occurrences  on  the  floor  of  the  house,  between 
himself,  as  speaker,  and  Mr.  Randolph,  and  remonstrated  against  his  (Mr.  R.'s) 
language  in  that  place,  as  the  speaker  could  not  reply.  Mr.  Randolph  said  :  "I 
think  you  sometimes  refuse  to  listen  to  me,  when  I  am  addressing  the  chair,  and 
turn  away  to  ask  for  a  pinch  of  snuff." — Mr.  Clay  said :  "  You  are  mistaken.  I 
can  repeat  as  much  of  any  of  your  late  speeches,  as  you  can  yourself,  good  as  I 
know  your  memory  to  be." — "  Well,"  said  Mr.  R.,  "  perhaps  I  am  mistaken.  Let 
US  shake  hands,  and  be  friends." 

At  another  time,  Mr.  Randolph  was  threatened  with  a  rude  assault,  out  of 
doors,  for  a  remark  he  had  made — itself  rude — and  he  came  for  advice  to  the 
speaker  (Mr.  Clay),  who  suggested,  whether  the  man  were  sane  ?  Mr.  R.  had 
his  doubts.  Mr.  Clay  said,  perhaps  it  would  not  be  best  to  trouble  the  house  with 
it;  but  he  would  order  the  officers  to  keep  an  eye  on  the  person,  and  arrest  him, 
if  they  thought  it  expedient. 


NULLIFICATION.  265 


CHAPTER  X. 

NULLIFICATION  VERSUS  A  SOUTHERN  PLANTER. 

Doctrine   of  the   Nullifiers.— Its    Absurdities.— The   Teachings   of  a   Southern 
Planter  contrasted  with  the  Doctrines  of  Nullification. 

It  remains  to  notice  briefly  the  argument  set  up  in  South  Car- 
olina at  the  time  of  the  compromise  in  1832-33,  which  was  used 
before,  and  is  still  employed  ;  though  it  ought  to  be  allowed,  that 
Mr.  Clay  has  fully  answered  it,  in  the  extracts  already  made  from 
his  speeches.  The  attention  of  the  reader  was  particularly  called, 
in  a  previous  chapter,  to  Mr.  Clay's  statement  of  the  argumenfum 
ad  absurduin  on  this  point,  which  is  a  standing  and  irrefragable 
answer.  Nevertheless,  some  respect  is  due  to  the  feelings  of  those 
who  still  believe  in  that  fallacy.  So  long  as  people  think  they 
have  grievances,  and  complain,  they  are  entitled  to  be  heard.  If, 
indeed,  there  is  no  just  foundation  for  this  complaint,  the  last  ves- 
tige of  objection  to  the  protective  policy  is  demolished. 

There  were  several  public  documents  sent  forth  under  the  state 
authorities  of  South  Carolina  on  that  occasion,  exhibidng  the  views 
of  her  leading  men  on  this  subject.  The  following  is  an  extract 
from  the  report  of  the  convention  which  enacted  the  nullifying 
ordinance  : — 

"  The  laws  [of  the  tariff]  have  been  so  framed  as  to  give  a  di- 
rect pecuniary  benefit  to  a  sectional  majority,  in  maintaining  a  grand 
system  by  which  taxes  are  in  effect  imposed  upon  the  few  for  the 
benefit  of  the  many ;  and  imposed,  too,  by  a  system  of  indirect 
taxation,  so  artfully  contrived  as  to  escape  the  vigilance  of  the 
common  eye,  and  masked  under  such  ingenious  devices  as  to  make 
it  extremely  difficult  to  expose  their  true  character.  Thus,  under 
the  pretext  of  imposing  duties  for  the  payment  of  the  public  debt, 
and  providing  for  the  common  defence  and  general  welfare  (powers 
expressly  conferred  on  the  federal  government  by  the  constitution), 
acts  are  passed  containing  provisions  designed  exclusively  and 
avowedly  for  the  purpose  of  securing  to  the  American  manufactu- 


2G6  NULLIFICATION. 

rers  a  monopoly  in  our  markets,  to  the  great  and  manifest  preju- 
dice of  those  who  furnish  the  agricultural  productions  which  are 
exchanired  in  forei£;n  markets  for  the  very  articles  which  it  is  the 
avowed  object  of  these  laws  to  exclude. 

"  If  die  sixteen  millions  of  dollars  now  annually  levied  in  du- 
ties on  the  foreign  goods  received  in  exchange  for  southern  pro- 
ducdons,  were  allowed  to  remain  in  the  pockets  of  the  people,  or, 
by  some  just  and  equal  system  of  appropriation,  could  be  restored 
to  them,  the  condition  of  the  plantation  states  would  unquestiona- 
bly be  one  of  unexampled  prosperity  and  happiness.  Such  was 
our  condition  under  a  system  of  free  trade,  and  such  would  soon 
be  again  our  enviable  lot.  Of  the  results  which  would  thereby  be 
produced,  some  faint  concepdon  may  be  formed  by  imagining 
what  would  be  the  effect  upon  the  interests  of  the  people  of  our 
own  state,  if  the  $8,000,000  of  foreign  goods  now  annually  re- 
ceived in  exchange  for  our  productions,  and  paying  duties  to  the 
amount  of  upward  of  three  millions  of  dollars,  could  be  obtained 
by  us  duty  free,  or  the  duties  thus  levied  were  expended  within 
our  own  limits.  Is  it  not  obvious,  that  several  millions  per  annum 
would  thereby  be  added  to  the  available  industry  of  South  Caro- 
lina? &c.  .  .  .  We  present  this  strong  view  of  the  subject  to  show 
the  manifest  justice  of  the  claims  of  South  Carolina,"  &c. 

The  following  extract  is  from  the  address  of  the  convention  to 
the  people  of  the  United  States : — 

"  Under  a  system  of  free  trade,  the  aggregate  crop  of  South 
Carolina  would  be  exchanged  for  a  larger  quantity  of  manufactures, 
by  at  least  one  third,  than  it  can  be  exchanged  for  under  the  pro- 
tecting system.  It  is  no  less  evident,  that  the  value  of  the  crop  is 
diminished  by  the  protecdng  system  very  nearly,  if  not  precisely, 
to  the  extent  that  the  aggregate  quandty  of  manufactures  that  is 
obtained  for  it,  is  diminished.  It  is  indeed  strictly  and  philosoph- 
ically true,  diat  the  quantity  of  consumable  commodities,  which 
can  be  obtained  for  the  cotton  and  rice  annually  produced  by  the 
industry  of  the  state,  is  the  precise  measure  of  their  aggregate 
value.  But  for  the  prevalent  and  habitual  error  of  confounding 
the  money  price  with  the  exchangeable  value  of  our  agricultural 
staples,  diese  propositions  would  be  regarded  as  self-evident.  If 
the  protecting  dudes  were  repealed,  one  hundred  bales  of  cotton, 
or  one  hundred  barrels  of  rice,  would  purchase  as  large  a  quantity 
of  manufactures  as  one  hundred  and  fifty  will  now  purchase.  The 
annual  income  of  the  state,  its  means  of  purchasing  and  consu- 
ming die  necessaries  and  comforts  and  luxuries  of  life,  would  be 
uicreased  in  a  corresponding  degree.  Almost  the  entire  crop  of 
South  Carolina,  amounting  annually  to  more  than  six  millions  of 
dollars,  is  ultimately  exchanged,  either  for  foreign  manufactures 
subject  to  protecting  dudes,  or  for  similar  domesUc  manufactures. 


NULLIFICATION.  2G7 

The  natural  value  of  tliat  crop  would  be  all  the  manufactures 
which  we  could  obtain  for  it  under  a  system  of  unrestricted  com- 
merce. The  artificial  value  produced  by  the  unjust  and  uncon- 
stitutional legislation  of  Congress,  is  only  such  part  of  these  man- 
ufactures as  will  remain  after  paying  a  duty  of  50  per  cent,  to  the 
government ;  or,  to  speak  with  more  precision,  to  the  northern 
manufacturers.  .  .  .  The  inevitable  result  is,  that  the  manufactures 
thus  lawfully  acquired  by  the  honest  industry  of  k^outh  Carolina, 
are  worth  annually  three  millions  of  dollars  less  to  her  citizens, 
than  the  very  same  quantity,  of  the  very  same  description,  of  man- 
ufactures is  worth  to  the  citizens  of  a  manufacturing  state — a  dif- 
ference of  value  produced  exclusively  by  the  operation  of  the  pro- 
tecting system.  No  ingenuity  can  either  evade  or  refute  this  prop- 
osition. The  very  axioms  of  geometry  are  not  more  self-evident. 
.  .  .  We  confidendy  appeal  to  our  confederated  states,  and  to  the 
whole  world,  to  decide  whether  the  annals  of  human  legislation 
furnish  a  parallel  instance  of  injustice  and  oppression  perpetrated 
in  the  form  of  free  government.  However  it  may  be  disguised  by 
the  complexity  of  the  process  by  which  it  is  effected,  it  is  nothing 
less  than  the  monstrous  outrage  of  taking  three  millions  of  dollars 
annually  from  the  value  of  the  productions  of  South  Carolina,  and 
transferring  it  to  the  people  of  other  and  distant  communities." 

The  first  thought  that  will  naturally  strike  one,  in  reading  the 
above  extracts,  is  a  concession,  made,  indeed,  under  the  form  of  a 
libel,  that  the  system  of  taxation  complained  of,  is  "so  artfully 
contrived  as  to  escape  the  vigilance  of  the  common  eye,  and 
masked  under  such  ingenious  devices,  as  to  make  it  extremely  dif- 
ficult to  expose  their  true  character.''''  It  was  no  doubt  an  "  ex- 
tremely difficult"  task  to  prove  what  was  necessary  to  maintain 
their  ground.  But  it  will  be  observed,  that  the  whole  of  their 
ground  falls  from  under  their  feet  by  the  proofs  elsewhere  given  in 
this  work,  that  the  protective  policy  cheapens  the  prices  of  articles 
protected,  instead  of  enhancing  them;  and  consequently,  that  the 
claim  of  South  Carolina  for  indemnification  or  relief  from  a  bur- 
den, is,  on  the  principle  of  their  own  argument,  converted  into  a 
debt  of  gratitude  at  least.  The  controversy  is  settled  by  the  set- 
tlement of  the  question,  whether  protective  duties  are  a  tax.  It 
has  been  shown  by  Mr.  Clay — and  is  proved  in  chapter  XII.  of  this 
volume — that  they  do  not  so  operate  ;  or,  if  there  are  exceptions, 
that  such  is  not  their  tendency,  but  the  contrary.  When  the  duties 
do  not  amount  to  prohibition,  they  not  only  extend  the  range  of 
competition,  but  they  bring  foreign  and  domestic  products  in  com- 
petition, and  the  uniform  experience  is  a  reduction  of  prices. 


2GS  NULLIFICATION. 

But  tliere  are  some  incorrect  statements  in  these  documents, 
which  are  of  material  consequence  in  their  bearings  on  the  contro- 
versy. They  complain  that  "  acts  are  passed  containing  provisions 
designed  exclusively  and  avowedly  to  secure  to  American  manu- 
facturers a  MONOPOLY  in  our  markets,  to  the  great  and  manifest 
prejudice  of  those  who  furnish  the  agricultural  productions  which 
are  exchanged  in  foreign  markets  for  the  very  articles  which  it  is 
the  avowed  object  of  these  laws  to  exclude."  The  self-contra- 
diction of  this  statement,  which  speaks  of  the  '^'  very  articles"  be- 
ing received  in  exchange,  which  are  in  the  same  sentence  repre- 
sented as  excluded  by  prohibitory  duties,  might  be  a  sufficient  an- 
swer to  itself.  But,  it  is  well  known,  that  these  duties  were  not 
intended  to  be  prohibitory,  except  perhaps  in  regard  to  a  kw  arti- 
cles, and  that  they  did  not  operate  as  such.  So  far,  therefore, 
from  securing  to  the  American  manufacturers  a  monopoly,  they 
only  opened  the  widest  possible  door  for  competition,  and  conse- 
quently for  obtaining  the  articles  at  a  lower  price,  as  was  in  fact 
the  result.  A  correct  statement  would  have  taken  away  all  ground 
of  argument,  as  it  must  have  exhibited  the  reasons  why  their  argu- 
ment had  no  solid  foundation.  A  misnomer  of  terms,  in  a  contro- 
versy, if  designed  to  conceal  the  truth,  or  to  gain  advantage  by 
exciting  popular  prejudice,  is  a  species  of  fraud,  which  will  not 
be  tolerated,  certainly  not  practised,  by  fair  minds.  The  term, 
MONOPOLY,  is  very  odious  ;  and  the  reason  why  the  tariff  com- 
plained of  did  not  give  a  monopoly,  but  widened  the  field  of  com- 
petition, was  the  reason  why  the  prices  of  the  articles  must  neces- 
sarily be  reduced,  and  thus  take  away  all  ground  of  objection. 
Experience  shows,  that  even  prohibitory  duties,  the  effect  of 
which  is  to  rear  domestic  establishments,  provide  for  the  public 
cheaper  and  better  articles,  as  soon  as  domestic  competition  has 
fairly  begun,  though  at  first  the  prices  may  occasionally  be  somewhat 
enhanced.  It  is  well  known,  that  American  iron  is  better  than  foreign, 
and  there  is  no  article  of  iron  manufacture  in  extensive  use,  that  will 
not  be  afforded  cheaper  by  domestic  than  foreign  factories,  as  soon 
as  the  protection  is  felt  to  be  sufficiently  stable  for  the  safe  invest- 
ment of  capital  in  domestic  establishments  on  a  scale  that  will  cre- 
ate competition.  Most  articles  of  iron  manufacture,  are  already 
cheapened,  and  none  are  so  high  as  they  would  be,  if  foreign  fac- 
tories had  the  monopoly,  as  they  would  have,  without  adequate 
protection  to  home  manufactures. 

But  there  is  another  item  of  incorrectness  in  a  statement  of  the 


NULLIFICATION.  2G9 

report  of  the  convention  of  South  Carolina,  leading  to  momentous 
results  on  the  supposition  of  its  being  fair ;  and  it  is  no  wonder 
that  the  people  of  that  state,  receiving  it  as  correct,  were  excited, 
and  ready  to  plunge  into  a  civil  war  for  a  remedy.  It  is  true  the 
report  does  not  positively  affirm  to  it  as  a  fact,  but  it  clearly  con- 
veys the  idea,  and  such  must  have  been  the  impression  made — 
that  the  tariff  robbed  that  state  of  tJiree  millions  of  dollars  annu- 
ally, as  stated  in  one  form,  and  several  millioris  as  stated  in  an- 
other form  ;  whereas,  according  to  their  own  theory,  that  duties 
are  taxes,  their  proportion  of  the  tax,  as  a  state,  could  only  have 
been  three  hundred  and  thirty-three  thousand,  three  hundred  and 
thirty-three  dollars,  as  shown  in  a  calculation  presented  by  Mr. 
Clay.  That  they  meant  to  be  so  understood,  appears  from  what 
they  say  at  the  conclusion  of  the  statement:  "We  present  this 
strong  view  of  the  subject,"  &c.  It  was  undeniably  a  "  strong 
view."  What  state  of  the  Union  would  not  rebel,  to  deliver 
itself  from  being  wronged  out  of  three  millions,  or  several  millions, 
annually?  It  certainly  was  not  quite  fair  to  bring  to  a  fallacious 
theory,  an  incorrect  statement  of  facts,  to  aggravate  the  hypothet- 
ical consequences  of  that  theory — those  consequences  being  repre- 
sented as  facts. 

In  the  extract  from  the  address  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  the  peculiar  theory  of  the  South-Carolinians  is  distinctly 
brought  out.  They  assume,  as  an  element  of  reasoning,  the  bar- 
ter principle,  as  if  it  were  practically  applied  in  the  disposal  of 
their  products,  which  is  not  a  fact.  They  go  into  the  market  like 
anything  else,  at  the  cash  price.  Barter,  or  the  exchange  of  one 
commodity  for  another,  neither  being  money,  is  not  practised  in 
the  commerce  of  civilized  communities,  but  is  confined  to  barba- 
rians. A  home  trade  has  much  in  it  that  is  tantamount  to  barter, 
and  that  is  the  beauty  and  superior  advantage  of  domestic  ex- 
changes, while  cash  is  always  the  medium-gauge  of  prices,  and 
may  be  used,  if  required  by  either  party.  But  in  foreign  trade 
and  exchanges,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  barter.  The  precious 
metals,  weighed  in  scales,  are  the  sole  medium  of  foreign  com- 
merce, and  all  balances  are  settled  by  that  rule. 

Pursuing  this  barter  principle,  the  South-CaroHnians  next  as- 
sume, that  their  products  would  yield  them  at  least  one  third  more, 
if  the  tariff  were  out  of  the  way,  which  imposes  about  one  third 
ad-valorem  duties.  In  this  assumption  is  implied  the  element, 
that  duties  are  taxes;  whereas  it  is  fully  shown,  that  they  reduce 


270  NULLIFICATION. 

prices.  Consequently,  on  the  barter  principle,  as  assumed,  in- 
stead of  having  received  in  exchange  one  third  less  than  the  value 
of  their  products,  they  have  receiv^ed  a  fraction  more — one  third, 
more  or  less,  in  excess  of  what  was  due  to  them  on  their  own 
principle.  Their  proposition,  therefore,  of  a  one-third  diminution 
in  the  value  of  their  crop,  by  the  protecting  system,  should  be 
reversed  to  something  like  a  one-third  mcrease.  There  can  be  no 
difference  of  opinion  about  the  following  proposition  laid  down  by 
them,  although  they  seemed  to  suppose  it  was  or  would  be  con- 
troverted :  "  It  is  indeed  strictly  and  philosophically  true,  that  the 
quantity  of  consumable  commodities,  which  can  be  obtained  for 
the  cotton  and  rice  annually  produced  by  the  industry  of  the  state, 
is  the  precise  measure  of  their  aggregate  value."  If  they  had 
claimed  the  rights  of  barter  according  to  this  rule,  they  would  no 
doubt  have  had  as  much  business  as  they  could  do,  not  to  say  at 
a  great  loss.  But,  like  wise  men,  they  have  preferred  "  the  money 
price,"  as  they  call  it,  in  distinction  from  "  exchangeable  value," 
alias  barter. 

The  following  palpable  form  of  their  theory  can  not  but  arrest 
attention  :  "  If  the  protecting  duties  were  repealed,  one  hundred 
bales  of  cotton,  or  one  hundred  barrels  of  rice,  would  purchase 
as  large  a  quantity  of  manufactures  as  one  hundred  and  fifty  now 
purchase."  This  is  what  is  commonly  called  "  the  forty-bale  the- 
ory," in  this  case,  assuming  50  per  cent,  as  the  duty,  it  is  a  fifty- 
bale  theory.  The  theory  is  illustrated  by  its  authors  thus  :  "  The 
South-Carolina  planter  exports  one  hundred  bales  of  cotton  to 
Liverpool,  exchanges  them  for  one  hundred  bales  of  merchandise, 
and  when  he  brings  them  home,  is  compelled  to  leave  at  the  cus- 
tomhouse forty  bales  in  the  form  of  duties."  Mr.  Clay's  answer 
to  this,  is  as  follows  :  "  To  test  the  correctness  of  the  hypothet- 
ical case,  let  us  suppose  that  the  duty,  instead  of  forty  per  centum, 
should  be  one  hundred  and  fifty,  which  is  asserted  to  be  the  duty 
in  some  cases.  Then  the  planter  would  not  only  lose  the  whole 
hundred  bales  of  merchandise,  which  he  had  gotten  for  his  hundred 
bales  of  cotton,  but  he  would  have  to  purchase,  with  other  means, 
an  additional  fifty  bales,  in  order  to  enable  him  to  pay  the  duties 
accruing  on  the  proceeds  of  the  cotton."  When  an  absurdity 
like  this  IS  made  out,  it  ought  to  be  quite  sufficient.  But  there  is 
another  answer :  It  is  not  the  South-Carolina  planter  who  carries 
on  this  exchange— he  sells  for  cash— but  his  broker  at  New  York 
in  the  first  stage,  and  the  importer  in  the  second.     If  the  importer 


NULLIFICATION.  271 

should  divide  the  proceeds  of  one  hundred  bales  of  cotton  into 
the  same  number  of  bales  of  merchandise,  he  can  afford  to  leave 
forty  bales,  or  whatever  be  the  duty,  at  the  customhouse,  and  make 
a  satisfactory  profit  in  his  business.  Such  is  the  practical  oper- 
ation, and  the  fact.  If  the  South-Carolina  planter  should  choose 
to  do  this  business  himself,  and  if  he  should  do  it  w^ith  equal 
skill,  he  would  acquire  the  profits  of  the  trade,  in  addition  to  the 
full  and  fair  price  for  his  cotton,  which  he  always  gets.  The  the- 
ory is  fallacious,  and  one  of  the  elements  of  its  fallacy,  is  the  as- 
sumption of  the  barter  principle,  which  is  never  practised  ;  anoth- 
er, that  import  duties  are  equivalent  to  export  duties.  It  would 
be  equally  true  to  say,  that  the  British  manufacturer,  whose  fab- 
rics are  bought  with  the  proceeds  of  the  cotton,  pays  the  duties 
collected  on  them  in  the  United  States,  as  that  the  planter,  the 
avails  of  whose  product  are  used  as  the  means  of  purchase,  pays 
them,  "  unless,"  as  Mr.  Clay  says,  "  the  principle  is  true  on  one 
side  of  the  Atlantic,  and  false  on  the  other." 

The  South-Carolinians  make  a  distinction  between  the  natural 
and  artijic'uil  value  of  their  crops,  thus:  "The  natural  value  of 
that  crop  would  be  all  the  manufactures  which  we  could  obtain  for 
it,  under  a  system  of  unrestricted  commerce.  The  artificial  value 
produced  by  the  unjust  and  unconstitutional  legislation  of  Congress 
is  only  such  part  of  those  manufactures  as  will  remain  after  paying 
a  duty  of  fifty  per  cent,  to  the  government."  Since  it  is  proved — 
very  unexpectedly  to  them — that  the  '■^artificial  value"  is  greater 
than  the  ^^ natural  value,"  they  can  not  complain;  and  if  they 
choose,  they  are  free  to  carry  out  their  principle  of  barter,  and 
have  all  the  profits  of  the  business.  Since  they  annually  consume 
only  from  six  to  seven  hundred  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  the  pro- 
tected articles,  iheir  advantage  is  limited  to  the  reduction  of  prices 
on  this  amount.  It  would  not  be  a  bad  speculation  for  them  to  do 
all  the  trading,  and  receive  the  balance  of  profits  arising  from  the 
"artificial  value"  of  eight  millions,  the  amount  of  their  products. 
As  to  the  annual  sacrifice  of  three  millions  of  dollars  to  the  state, 
that,  of  course,  is  all  done  away  with,  by  the  unexpected  operation 
of  the  tariff  in  their  favor,  in  the  reduction  of  prices. 

Mr.  Clay  has  clearly  shown,  diat  the  American  manufacture  of 
cotton,  growing  out  of  the  protective  policy,  instead  of  diminish- 
ing, as  averred  by  the  South-Carolina  doctrine,  has  increased  the 
demand  for  the  raw  material.  As  early  as  1832,  Great  Britain  had 
a  foreign  market  for  her  cotton  manufactures,  amounting  annually 


272  NULLIFICATION. 

to  one  hundred   and   sixty  millions  of  dollars,   more  than   three 
fourths  of  which  was  a  positive  value  added  by  British  industry  and 
art  to  the  raw  material,  purchased  chiefly  of  the  American  planter, 
only  five  per  cent,  of  which  then  came  to  the  United  States.     If 
Great  Britain  had  been  excluded  from  the  American  markets,  she 
still  had  a  market  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  for  the  remaining 
ninety-five  per  cent.,  constantly  on  the  increase,  and  must  have  the 
raw  material  to  supply  it.     But  she  has  not  been  driven  from  the 
American  market,  except  in  coarse  fabrics ;  and  the  demand  of  the 
American  manufactories  for  the  raw  material  is  far  beyond  the  five 
per  cent.,  also  constantly  increasing;  so  that  the  cotton  planter  has 
not  only  the  advantage  of  a  new  and  home  market,  but  wider  and 
more  rapidly-augmenting  demand  for  his  product.     It  is  absurd  to 
suppose,  that  British  manufacturers  would  not  continue  their  de- 
mand for  the  raw  material,   for  the  full  supply  of  their  growing 
trade  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  which,  by  American  competition, 
would  naturally  be  pushed  with  greater  vigor;  and  the  American 
demand  for  the  raw  material  may  perhaps  be  put  down  for  nearly 
if  not  quite  all  clear  gain  to  the  cotton  planter.     It  has  been  shown 
by  the  Hon.  Mr.  Simmons,  of  the  United  States  senate,  that  the 
American  market  for  raw  cotton,  is  by  far  belter  for  the  planter, 
than  the  British  or  any  other  foreign  market.     It  is  certain  that  the 
demand  for  raw  cotton  has  not  been  diminished  by  the  existence 
and  growth  of  American   manufactures,   because  the  supposition 
involves  an  absurdity.     It  is  not  less  certain,  that  the  causes  which 
prevent  diminution,  must  operate  to  produce  augmentation;  and  as 
price  is  always  governed  by  demand,  the  greater  demand  must  be 
favorable  to  prices. 

Some  sections  of  the  Union,  and  some  local  or  individual  inter- 
ests, unless  a  tariff  is  carefully  and  fairly  adjusted,  may  be  bene- 
fited more  than  others;  but,  as  a  general  rule,  none  can  be  injured 
by  the  protective  policy.  The  cause  of  the  more  sluggish  pros- 
perity of  the  south,  will  probably  be  found  in  that  which  makes 
the  difference  in  the  results  of  involuntary  and  voluntary  labor.  It 
should  not  be  matter  of  surprise,  that  there  is  greater  thrift  in 
a  state  of  society,  where  all  the  people  work,  and  each  man  works 
for  himself,  than  in  a  society  that  is  sustained  by  involuntary 
service. 

It  is  certainly  remarkable,  that  the  people  of  South  Carolina 
should  have  been  persuaded,  by  a  fallacy,  that  they  were  taxed 
three  millions  of  dollars  a  year  for  other  people  and  other  states, 


VIEWS    OF    A    SOUTHERN    PLANTER.  273 

when,  on  the  fundamental  principle  of  the  argument  of  their  pre- 
ceptors, they  could  only  have  been  taxed  to  the  amount  of  the  duties 
on  the  protected  articles  which  they  consumed,  to  wit,  some  three 
hundred  and  thirty-three  thousand,  three  hundred  and  thirty-three 
dollars;  and  when,  after  all,  it  appears,  that  even  this  alleged  tax 
proves  to  be  a  bonus ;  that,  because  they  had  the  good  fortune  to 
find  a  market  for  eight  millions  of  their  agricultural  products,  not 
in  the  way  of  barter,  but  for  cash,  they  should  imagine  this  cash 
was  reduced  one  half  after  they  had  got  it  in  hand,  which,  if  it  had 
so  happened,  must  have  been  their  own  fault,  or  a  species  of  magic 
for  which  man  ought  not  to  be  held  accountable ;  that  because  a 
merchant  traded  as  well  as  he  could  with  the  proceeds  of  their 
cotton  and  rice,  after  they  had  come  fairly  into  his  hands  by  pur- 
chase, and  brought  home  such  goods  in  exchange  as  he  could 
make  most  profit  on,  duties  or  no  duties,  they  should  think  that 
they  paid  duties  on  goods  with  which  they  had  no  concern  ;  that 
they  should  be  made  to  believe,  that  import  duties  are  equivalent 
to  export  duties;  that  when  a  New- York  importer  pays  duties  on 
British  or  other  foreign  products,  South-Carolinians  pay  them  also, 
because  they  sell  cotton  and  rice  to  a  New- York  broker,  for  the 
markets  from  which  those  imports  come ;  and  that  they  are  very 
much  oppressed  by  a  tariff  which  has  supplied  them  annually  with 
some  six  or  seven  hundred  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  manufactured 
articles — the  amount  of  their  consumption  of  such  as  come  under 
protection — cheaper  than  they  could  otherwise  have  obtained  them ! 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  some  portions  of  the  south,  at  least, 
are  in  the  transit  state  of  being  converted  from  the  doctrines  so 
strenuously  maintained  by  South  Carolina.  It  was  credibly  stated 
to  the  author  of  this  work,  that  one  of  the  United  States  senators, 
from  one  of  the  greatest  cotton-growing  states,  who  had  always 
opposed  the  protective  policy,  and  voted  against  the  tarifFof  1842, 
after  having  observed  the  practical  operation  of  that  measure,  said: 
"I  have  no  more  to  say.  The  tariff  of  1842  has  destroyed  our 
theory." 

But  the  most  remarkable  fact  of  all  recent  events  of  this  kind, 
is  a  work  lately  published,  entitled,  "Notes  on  Political 
Economy,  as  applicable  to  the  United  States,  by  a 
Southern  Planter.  New  York:  Leavitt,  Trow,  &  Co., 
1844."  In  his  preface,  the  writer  invokes  especially  the  attention 
of  "the  southern  states,  with  which  he  stands  identified  by  birth  and 

Vol.  II.— 18 


274  REASONIXGS    OF 

interest ;"  and  in  the  body  of  the  work,  while  giving  statistics  ap- 
pertaining to  the  economy  of  a  plantation,  as  evidence  of  his 
knowledge  of  the  subject,  he  says :  "  The  writer  speaks  from  ex- 
perience ;  for  he  is  a  planter  of  cotton,  and  owns  slaves."  That 
such  a  voice  should  come  forth  from  that  quarter,  was  perhaps  un- 
expected.    It  can  not  be  denied,  that  the  teachings  of  this  work 

they  are  very  strong — are  worthy  of  special  regard  on  account  of 
this  origin;  nor  can  it  well  be  averred,  that  the  evidence  is  less 
credible.  To  give  a  taste  of  it,  so  far  as  it  treats  of  the  protective 
policy,  as  well  as  to  have  the  advantage  of  some  of  its  luminous 
and  effective  concentrations  of  thought,  the  author  of  this  work 
has  obtained  leave  from  the  publishers  to  make  a  few  extracts. 
He  had  thought  of  introducing  them  in  the  form  of  a  note.  But 
they  are  really  so  spirited,  so  vigorous,  so  replete  with  information, 
and  withal  so  striking  a  contrast  to  the  foregoing  doctrines  of  the 
South  Carolina  nullifiers,  coming  as  they  do  from  the  same  quar- 
ter, that  the  author  has  been  induced  to  put  them  one  over  against 
the  other,  for  the  effect  they  are  naturally  calculated  to  produce. 
They  are  also  so  rich  and  valuable,  that  these  few  pages  could  not 
be  better  employed  in  elucidating  this  important  subject.  They 
are  selected  from  thirty-three  chapters  of  a  handsome  volume, 
which  will  account  for  the  frequent  and  abrupt  changes  of  topic, 
and  the  chasms  actually  leaped  to  give,  in  a  limited  space,  a  gen- 
eral idea  of  the  work,  every  part  of  which  is  equally  worthy  of 
attention.  For  the  statistical  information  and  facts  contained  in 
these  citations,  the  author  of  this  work  can  not  be  responsible  ;  but 
he  presumes  they  are  worthy  of  respect : — 

"  In  all  modifications  of  the  tariff;  in  all  propositions  to  promote 
agriculture,  commerce,  or  manufactures  ;  in  all  laws  or  arrange- 
ments that  go  to  affect  labor,  or  change  the  order  of  things,  the 
only  question  should  be,  do  the  circumstances  of  the  country 
favor  it: — or,  do  the  i7itercsts  of  the  nation  require  it  ? — is  a  case 
made  out  to  fit  or  call  for  the  measure  in  question  ? — and  what  is 
the  real  condition  of  things  in  reference  to  the  proposition  ? — not 
what  did  Adam  Smith  or  Mr.  Say  write  or  lay  down  ?  *  *  » 
The  policy  of  protection  is  too  manifest  in  many  cases  to  be  ques- 
tioned by  any  political  economist,  and  the  practice  has  prevailed 
more  or  less  in  all  ages  and  in  all  nations.  Taunt  me  not,  then, 
with  the  quaint  argument  that  '  the  let-alone  system  is  the  best.' 
Tell  me  not  that,  under  all  circumstances,  individuals  will  not  only 
find  out  the  most  profitable  lines  of  industry  and  business,  but  exe- 
cute them,  and  realize  the  profits  incident  thereto;  that  no  action 
of  the  government  is  necessary  in   any  case — no  protection  or 


A    SOUTHERN    PLANTER.  275 

Lounty  required.  *  *  #  Every  production,  the  result  of 
protection,  in  this  country,  has  been  brought  cheaper  and  better 
into  the  market  than  before  such  protection.  *  *  *  There  is 
something  fascinating,  but  deceptive,  in  the  idea  of  free  trade.  It 
seizes  upon  the  unthinking,  and  takes  with  all  that  do  not  reflect ; 
because  it  seems  to  be  a  sort  of  adjunct  or  corollary  of  liberty,  in 
its  broad  and  unrestrained  sense.  The  demagogues  and  designing 
politicians  catch  at  popularity  by  using  this  popular  term,  and  ring 
upon  it  all  the  changes  to  suit  their  purposes.  *  *  *  Nations 
must  be  similarly  circumstanced,  stand  on  the  same  footing, 
and  have  all  advantages  and  circumstances  equal,  in  order  to  in- 
sure the  principles  of  free  trade  working  mutually  beneficial  to  all. 
Any  difference  in  their  condition  ;  any  advantage  ;  any  engross- 
ing of  skill,  capital,  tonnage,  or  seamen  :  any  long-established 
organization,  would  give  to  a  nation  possessing  them  the  vantage- 
ground,  and  enable  it  to  put  all  others  under  contribution,  unless 
countervailed.  Old  nations  would,  through  it,  subsidize  young 
ones.  A  high  degree  of  manufacturing  skill  and  refinement  would 
enable  the  nation  having  it  to  keep  a  hold  on  all  the  world.  *  *  * 
Whenever  free  trade  hereafter  be  suggested,  it  will  either  be  from 
old  advanced  nations,  based  on  interest,  or  from  designing  poli- 
ticians expecting  to  make  capital  out  of  the  idea  by  humbugging 
the  ignorant.  I  feel  assured  that  the  idea  in  this  country  has 
nothing  to  do  with  patriotism.  *  *  *  Make  trade  free,  let 
mankind  buy  where  they  can  the  cheapest,  and  a  few  nations  will 
master  all,  and  absorb  the  capital  of  the  whole  world.  *  *  * 
England,  with  her  advantages  and  capital,  may  w^ell  cry  aloud  for 
free  trade,  for  she  will  profit  most  by  it.  She  may  well  put  argu- 
ments into  her  customers'  mouths,  and  even  write  tracts  and  dis- 
tribute them  among  ignorant  people,  who  are  waking  up  to  their 
own  interests,  to  the  reality  of  their  situation,  and  would  fain  arrest 
the  impoverishing  process  before  it  be  too  late.  England,  lately, 
when  she  had  got  all  the  capital  or  money  of  the  United  States  for 
goods  that  they  ought  to  have  made  at  home,  and  finding  the  thing 
growing  slack,  gave  her  credit  for  a  year  or  two  of  supply  ahead. 
She  even  loaned  the  states  two  hundred  millions  of  dollars  to  stim- 
ulate them  to  do  any  sort  of  things,  for  England  knew  that  if  that 
money  should  be  wasted  there,  it  would  nevertheless  find  its  way 
back  to  her,  as  an  ability  to  buy  more  goods,  which  it  did  in  the 
most  literal  and  absolute  way.  *  *  *  Free  trade,  therefore, 
would  be  gain  and  great  wealth  to  some  few  nations,  but  poverty 
and  death  to  most  of  them. 

"  To  deprive  a  nation  of  the  right  to  encourage  her  industry 
and  her  arts,  to  develop  all  or  any  of  her  resources,  or  to  meet 
other  nations  on  equal  terms,  would  cripple  her  very  existence. 
This  doctrine  would  strike  at  her  vitals,  and  throw  her  bound  hand 


276  REASONINGS    OF 

and  foot  into  the  power  of  her  enemies.  *  *  *  Jf  ^yg  were  to 
make  the  ten  million  dollars''  worth  of  cotton  goods  that  we  now 
import,  it  would  only  require  about  sixty  thousand  bales  more  of 
our  cotton,  out  of  a  crop  of  two  million  bales,  which  would  not 
much  impair  our  export  of  the  article,  and  would  leave  us  enough 
to  put  Europe  under  contribution,  for  they  must  have  it.  When 
I  say  that  Europe  must  have  our  raw  cotton,  I  mean  that  it  is  her 
interest  to  take  it,  because  it  will  be  the  cheapest  and  best.  Wu 
will  continue  to  grow  it  cheaper  than  any  other  people,  and  such 
will  be  the  competition  among  the  spinners  of  Europe,  that  no  one 
will  dare  to  give  a  bounty  for  cotton,  or  pay  more  for  it  than  their 
neighbor,  or  lay  a  tax  upon  it.  Every  pound  of  the  raw  cotton 
that  w^e  might  spin  under  a  proper  protection  will  be  our  own  ;  and 
were  we  to  impart  the  Jive  additional  values  to  the  raw  which  the 
wrought  amounts  to,  it  would  be  all  that  clear,  and  done  by  a 
population  that  would  be  otherwise  idle  and  producing  nothing. 
*  #  *  The  raw  materal  of  iron  is  without  limit  also  in  this 
country,  and  stands  in  value  perhaps  even  ahead  of  cotton.  Iron 
is  the  right  hand  of  human  operations,  and  a  sine  qna  vo7i  in  fact 
in  all  the  arts,  comforts,  and  even  luxuries  of  man.  Did  we  not 
ourselves  show  the  instance,  I  would  have  said  no  nation  on  earth 
is,  or  could  be,  inconsiderate  enough,  or  so  wanting  to  her  own 
interests  and  independence  as  to  import  this  indispensable  article 
of  human  necessity.  *  *  *  The  reason  that  we  do  not  work 
iron  up  to  our  want,  without  protection,  is,  the  large  capital  it 
requires  for  furnaces,  blasts,  ore-beds,  fuel,  and  much  machinery 
of  a  complicated  and  particular  sort,  and  the  want  of  skill  neces- 
sary to  the  operation. 

******* 

"  As  things  now  stand,  we  give  all  possible  facility  to  the  intro- 
duction of  foreign  goods  that  we  ought  to  make  ourselves  ;  and 
not  only  invite  them  by  low  duties  to  our  shores,  but  diffuse  them 
to  every  part  in  a  certain  and  cheap  way.  We  have  taxed  our- 
selves hundreds  of  millions  to  make  these  canals  and  railroads,  to 
let  strangers  enjoy  them,  and  through  them  to  paralyze  our  indus- 
try and  draw  from  our  very  bowels  our  last  cent.  We  have  been 
working  for  others — have  been  straining  our  credit,  making  debts 
and  loans  enough  to  both  disgrace  us  and  grind  down  our  posterity 
into  the  very  dust  for  the  benefit  of  other  nations.  Instead  of  our 
own  articles  and  goods  being  carried  on  them,  we  open  them  to 
strangers,  whom  we  meet  in  the  remotest  interior,  not  only  availing 
themselves  of  our  works  to  prostrate  our  industry  with  their  goods, 
but  laughing  at  our  simplicity,  insulting  our  forbearance,  and 
claiming  to  have  us  for  eternal  customers.  The  debts  the  states 
have  contracted  abroad,  unless  counteracted  by  encourafrins:  our 
own  mdustry  at  hotne,  will  reduce  us  to  mere  colonies  of  England 
for  the  next  age.     Paying  twelve  or  fifteen  millions  interest  abroad 


A    SOUTHERN    PLANTER.  277 

annually  will  take  all  our  surplus  money,  and  leave  nothing  for  an 
increased  wealth  or  comfort.  Fifty  millions  paid  and  expended  at 
home  would  not  be  half  as  much  felt,  nor  produce  half  the  stag- 
nation and  privation.  In  such  payments  there  is  no  remead — no 
return  made  of  the  money  thus  gone  for  ever: 'it  doubles  not  back 
upon  the  exhausted  country,  and  touches  no  new  springs  of  indus- 
try to  atone  for  the  loss — unlike  the  home  expenditures,  no  matter 
how  heavy,  which  are  still  in  the  country  and  a  part  of  its  wealth. 
Our  works,  therefore,  doubly  injure  us  unless  we  protect  our  own 
industry  ;  first,  by  letting  our  enemy,  a  very  viper,  into  our  bosom 
to  flood  us  with  worthless  manufactures  ;  secondly,  by  having  cre- 
ated this  two  hundred  millions  of  foreign  debt  to  sap  our  resources 

for  ages,  and  disgrace  us  in  the  bargain. 

*  *  #  *  *  *  # 

"  Why  should  any  general  law  giving  protection,  or  even  a 
bounty,  be  regarded  as  partial,  and  taxing  one,  even  temporarily, 
for  the  benefit  of  another  ?  The  law  is  open  to  all,  and  every  in- 
dividual in  the  community  has  an  equal  right  to  enter  the  lists  and 
profit  by  it.  If  he  does  not  avail  himself  of  it,  there  is  no  cause 
for  complaint ;  it  is  a  proof  that  he  waives  his  right  and  gives  way 
to  others.  Our  politicians  in  this  country  show  a  great  deal  of 
dishonesty  and  unfairness  in  cases  like  this,  and  try  to  pervert  and 
strain  facts  to  make  the  ignorant  believe  they  are  oppressed,  that 
they  may  make  political  capital  out  of  it.  The  idea  of  njonopoly 
is  widely  different  from  this,  made  of  sterner  stuff,  and  intended  to 
favor  an  individual,  or  company,  at  the  expense  of  the  community. 

"  So  that  a  thing  is  made  and  supplied  at  home,  it  matters  but 
little  whether  it  costs  more  or  less.  This  is  broad  ground  and 
needs  some  illustration,  because  if  true  it  does  away  all  the  objec- 
tions that  can  be  offered  to  a  protecting  tariff.  It  makes  all  the 
difference  to  the  country,  taking  in  its  rounds  and  interchanges  of 
labor,  and  its  capital,  whether  a  dollar  is  laid  out  at  home  or  abroad, 
in  buying  an  article.  When  it  goes  to  a  foreign  country  to  buy 
the  thing,  it  is  gone  for  ever,  and  becomes  the  capital  or  the  dol- 
lar of  that  country,  after  it  makes  one  operation  only.  Whereas 
if  you  lay  out  that  dollar  at  home,  in  the  neighborhood,  or  next 
village,  or  next  state,  or  district,  for  an  article,  it  remains  in  the 
country,  and  is  still  a  part  of  the  capital  of  the  country.  It  does 
infinitely  more  than  that,  because  it  circulates  and  repeats  its  oper- 
ation of  buying  an  article  perhaps  one  hundred  times,  possibly  a 
thousand  times,  and  in  its  rounds  serves  the  purposes  of  a  hundred 
or  a  thousand  dollars,  as  the  case  may  be.  In  the  grand  rounds 
of  its  circulation,  it  touches  as  many  springs  of  industry  as  it  does 
hands,  and  is  all  the  time  doing  good.  When  it  shall  have  done 
all  this,  or  while  it  is  doing  all  this — for  the  thing  never  ends — 
it  is  still  a  dollar,  and  counted  properly  among  the  dollars  or  the 


278  REASONINGS    OF 

capital  of  the  country.  Figures  can't  calculate  the  difference, 
therefore,  in  expending  a  dollar  at  home  or  ahroad ;  even  the  geo- 
metrical ratio  can't  accumulate  fast  enough  to  realize  this  differ- 
ence. It  outstrips  everything  but  the  human  imagination  in  its 
progress.  This  vast  difference  has  never  occurred  to  our  wisest 
politicians,  much  less  our  demagogues.  Now  if  the  article  should 
cost  ten  per  cent,  more  than  the  foreign,  it  is  ten  times  made  up 
in  this  grand  round  we  have  alluded  to,  by  tlie  rapid  repetition  of 
the  thing.  It  is  again  made  up  in  the  way  that  prices  tally  or 
adapt  themselves  to  one  another.  If  the  seller  of  the  article  gets 
a  little  more,  he  in  his  turn  pays  a  little  more  to  the  laborers,  and 
they  a  little  more  to  the  farmers,  they  a  little  more  to  the  hands, 
and  so  on  all  around  the  circle,  until  a  perfect  equilibrium  is  not 
only  restored,  but  kept  up  between  all,  and  all  prices  quadrate  into 
a  perfect  system,  that  in  the  rounds  can't  make  the  least  difference 
as  to  the  cost  or  difference  of  price.  I  would  go  so  far  as  to 
allege  and  boldly  say,  that  if  a  country  bought  all  at  home,  and 
had  nothing  to  do  with  foreign  markets,  it  would  make  no  differ- 
ence to  it  in  the  aggregate,  or  nationally  speaking,  what  an  article 
costs  in  reason.  It  would  neither  add  to  nor  impair  her  wealth  or 
resources.  The  above  point  of  view  is  worth  much  to  political 
economy,  and,  if  understood,  would  do  away  the  slang  and  every- 
day arguments  of  '  tax  not  one  portion  of  the  people  for  the  benefit 
of  the  others.'  It  does  not  operate  so  at  all,  even  when  a  difference 
does  seem  apparent.  On  the  other  principle,  too,  the  argument 
fails,  as  we  have  seen  in  a  former  chapter ;  that  is  to  say,  in  the 
operation  of  skill  and  competition  upon  prices,  when  they  shall 
have  had  time  to  act.  On  both  the  above  principles,  then,  there 
can  be  no  danger,  no  loss  nor  tax  in  a  protecting  tariff.  The 
country  is  sure  to  retain  its  capital,  and  have  the  price  reasonable 
too,  or  so  graduated  as  not  to  be  felt. 

"  A  part  of  the  same  argument  is  the  slang  expression  of  '  buy- 
ing where  we  can  the  cheapest.'  This  argument  never  looks  be- 
yond its  nose,  never  once  calculates  the  general  effect  of  things,  or 
takes  in  the  resources,  labor,  independence,  or  capital  of  a  coun- 
try. It  overlooks  all  those  sacred  duties  that  would  go  to  give 
employment  to  all  laborers,  develop  and  bring  into  action  new 
resources  within  reach,  and  save  to  a  nation  its  capital  or  income, 
instead  of  wasting  it  in  expenditures  abroad.  *  *  *  The 
prices  ol  things,  not  only  in  manufactures  but  agriculture,  are  not 
governed,  as  old  writers  say,  and  regulated  by  the  cost  of  produc- 
tion, or  the  quantity  of  labor  necessary  to  make  them  or  produce 
them,  but  by  the  demand  for  them.  All  the  vibrations  in  the 
markets,  the  ups  and  downs  of  prices,  are  pretty  much  the  result 
of  a  greater  or  less  demand  for  the  productions  in  question  among 
the  consumers.  An  overdone  or  clogged  market  is  always  a  bad 
one,  and  prices  fall  in  consequence  thereof.      *      *      *      ^he 


A    SOUTHERN    PLANTER.  279 

Strongest  case  in  illustration  of  the  principle,  that  nations  who  buy 
their  supplies  from  abroad  never  accumulate  capital,  and  all  the 
time  remain  poor,  is  found  in  the  history  of  these  United  States. 
We  have  had  a  valuable  agricultural  product  all  the  time,  inclu- 
ding our  staples,  and  have  annually  expended  it  abroad,  in  buying 
such  things  as  we  should  have  made  at  home,  and  have  saved 
but  little  capital ;  because  it  took  our  whole  ability  to  supply  our- 
selves with  necessaries  and  luxuries  from  abroad,  which  are  con- 
sumed, leaving  not  a  wreck  behind.  Our  effort  has  been  to  make 
the  two  ends  of  the  year  meet,  and  prevent  balances  against  us. 
Have  we  done  this  ?  The  worst  is  to  come  ;  and  when  our  pres- 
ent circumstances  speak,  will  show  a  sad  case  of  debt  and  thral- 
dom, worse  than  the  spendthrift,  who,  after  using  up  his  income, 
finds  himself  in  the  hands  of  the  Jews  and  usurers.  England, 
after  finding  that  we  had  not  only  spent  our  income  with  her,  and 
anticipated  it  by  one  or  two  years,  and  that  we  had  gotten  into  such 
an  extravagant  way  as  to  want  more — ten  times  more,  if  we  could 
get  it — met  this  want  up  to  all  the  available  credit  that  we  had 
after  our  means  were  exhausted.  The  evil  did  not  stop  there. 
She  agreed  to  take,  and  required  us  to  transfer,  all  the  stocks  that 
were  available,  and  promised  some  dividend  to  her,  including  our 
national,  state,  corporation,  and  the  one  thousand  banks  that  we 
had  started.  When  all  this  was  done,  and  the  dividends  gone 
from  us  for  ever,  as  well  as  the  principal,  and  we  still  wanted 
more  !  cried  aloud  for  more  !  must  have  more  !  the  plan  was  then 
hit  on  to  call  up  the  states,  these  sovereignties  that  stood  behind 
the  crowd,  and  urge  them  on  to  useless  and  empty  consumption, 
and  get  them  to  borrow  millions  under  the  semblance  that  they 
could  expend  them  in  developing  the  country.  These  sovereign- 
ties, urged  by  demagogues  who  knew  that  they  would  have  the 
handling  of  the  money,  came  forward  and  put  their  sign-manual  to 
loans  amounting  to  two  hundred  million  dollars,  and  issued,  with 
much  parade,  bonds  and  stock  to  that  amount,  bearing  on  an  aver- 
age six  per  cent.,  payable  semi-annually,  or  quarterly  even,  in 
England,  if  required.  This  money  reached  this  country  princi- 
pally in  the  shape  of  trashy  goods,  at  two  prices,  and  such  things 
as  we  either  did  not  need  or  ought  to  have  made  at  home,  but 
which  we  consumed  and  sunk  for  ever.  That  two  hundred  mil- 
lion gave  us  that  much  more  ability  to  buy  and  consume  English 
goods,  which  she  very  well  knew,  and  every  cent  of  it  returned 
rapidly  to  Europe,  principally  to  England,  sure  enough,  after  more 
goods.  So  rapidly  did  it  hurry  back,  that  it  made  no  improve- 
ments in  the  country  in  the  shape  of  cities,  farms,  schools,  and 
substantial  comforts ;  merely  half  dug  out  some  canals  and  ways 
for  roads,  and  built  some  board  shantees  in  which  to  sell  liquors 
and  English  goods  to  the  laborers,  who  pretended  to  be  making 
great  works. 


280  REASONINGS    OF 

"  What  are  the  facts  now  ?  We  wake  up  to  debts  enough  to 
weigh  down  our  industry  for  the  next  fifty  years.  The  states 
owe  in  their  sovereign  capacity  two  hundred  milhons  ;  half  of  it  not 
even  paying  interest  from  sheer  inabiUty,  ten  millions  of  it  repu- 
diated, and  disgracing  in  both  cases  our  free  institutions  and  na- 
tion. Of  bank  and  corporation  and  national  stocks,  besides,  two 
hundred  millions  held  in  England,  and  the  individual  indebtedness, 
amounting  abroad  to  fifty  millions,  making  in  all  the  enormous 
sum  of  four  hundred  and  fifty  million  dollars  owed  abroad,  and 
for  what?  such  things  as  we  might  and  ought  to  have  made  at 
home.  Half  of  the  works  aimed  at  are  not  finished  ;  such  as  are 
completed  subserve  Europe  perhaps  nearly  as  much  as  ourselves, 
by  letting  her  into  the  very  bosom  of  our  country,  to  poison  and 
corrupt  still  more  our  very  principle  of  action.  We  are  now  pay- 
ing to  England,  in  the  shape  of  interest  and  dividends,  not  less 
than  fifteen  million  dollars  annually,  which  will  keep  us  poor  for 
an  age  to  come.  The  expending,  or  rather  paying  for  it,  is  now 
not  even  an  outlay  ;  fifteen  million  dollars  abroad  hurts  us  worse, 
prostrates  us  more,  than  paying  to  one  another  one  hundred  mil- 
lions would  ;  for  then  the  money  is  still  in  the  country,  and  a  part 
of  our  capital ;  in  the  other  case  it  is  gone  for  ever. 

"  There  is  no  calculating  such  differences  ;  they  appal  when  run 
out  into  their  details.  I  would  lay  it  down,  then,  as  a  plain  prin- 
ciple, and  a  case  proved,  that  a  nation  that  supplies  itself  with 
articles  of  necessity  or  even  luxury  from  abroad,  will  never  accu- 
mulate capital  or  get  rich,  can  only  hope  to  meet  the  balance  annu- 
ally. I  will  further  assert,  and  appeal  to  experience  in  support  of 
the  fact,  that  they  do  not  meet  their  balances,  but  are  invariably 
in  debt  abroad.  I  will  also  assert,  and  prove  it,  too,  that  all 
increase  of  capital,  all  issue  of  stocks,  or  loans  made  by  a  nation 
thus  circumstanced,  is  death  to  her ;  for  all  this,  too,  travels  abroad 
for  goods.  I  will  finally  assert,  that  these  operations  indefinitely 
postpone  the  time  when  such  nation  will  supply  itself,  and  give  to 
it  so  much  discredit  and  such  innumerable  bad  habits  and  factitious 
wants,  that  she  can  scarcely  ever  be  available  for  pracUcal  and 
economical  pm-poses,  and  stands  mortgaged  and  bound  for  ages  to 
her  successful  and  laughing  masters  and  rivals. 

******* 

"  It  is  bad  enough  to  depend  on  foreign  countries  for  luxuries, 
or  such  things  as  our  country  can  not  produce ;  but  wo  to  that 
nation  that  buys  its  necessaries  abroad  !  *  *  *  To  save  sixty 
million  dollars  a  year,  which  is  tantamount  to  making  it,  would 
enrich  this  nation  very  fast,  and  leave  us  a  completely  comforta- 
ble people. 


"It  is  contended  and  used  as  an  objection  to  the  protecting 
tariff,  that  '  if  we  make  our  own  supplies  up  to  the  full,  Europe, 


A    SOUTHERN    PLANTER.  281 

and  England  in  particular,  would  not  take  oar  raw  materials.' 
They  pretend  that  she  does  that  on  the  principles  of  reciprocal 
trade,  and  takes  our  raw  things,  as  far  as  we  take  her  goods.  This 
is  not  true  ;  for  they  take  no  more  of  our  things,  at  any  rate,  than 
they  want,  and  must  have.  The  idea  of  mutual  interest  never 
entered  into  their  calculations.  They  shut  their  ports  against  our 
provisions  and  corn,  and  against  all  of  our  manufactures,  by  such 
high  duties,  that  none  scarcely  go  in,  and  yet  clamor  if  we  attempt 
to  supply  our  own  wants.  This  is  reciprocity  with  a  vengeance 
History  could  not  furnish  an  instance  of  more  selfishness  than  Eng 
land  manifests,  or  more  arrogating  injustice.  We  have  the  mean- 
ness, too,  of  not  only  not  countervailing  it,  but  actually  contributing 
to  keep  up  that  one-sided  state  of  trade.  Our  anti-tariff  politicians, 
are  as  much  playing  into  the  hands  of  the  English,  in  all  their 
measures,  as  if  the  words  were  put  into  their  mouths  by  England, 
and  our  laws  penned  by  her,  too.  It  is  strangely  inconsistent  that 
a  party  should  exist  in  this  free  country,  in  one  breath  abusing 
England  with  fixed  hatred,  and  in  the  next  moment  contributing 
to  all  her  injustice,  and  even  preferring  her  interests  to  New 
England,  as  to  manufactures.  I  have  witnessed  cases  where 
English  goods  of  a  worse  quality,  and  dearer,  were  preferred  to 
better  goods  from  New  England.  England  goes  on  the  principle 
of  buying  nothing  but  raw  materials,  or  such  tropical  or  southern 
luxuries  as  she  can't  produce,  and  buys  them  invariably  where  she 
can  the  cheapest.  *  *  *  Is  it  not  surprising,  and  past  all 
belief,  that  our  greatest  men  from  the  south,  and  many  of  the 
leaders  of  party,  should  have  risked  their  reputation  for  thought, 
and  character,  and  consistency,  so  far  as  to  have  asserted,  on  the 
floor  of  Congress,  that  '  unless  we  take  our  supplies  of  goods  from 
England,  she  will  not  take  our  raw  cotton  V  And  further,  that 
'  because  the  export  of  cotton  gives  us  most  of  our  export  value,  it 
must  pay  and  does  pay  one  half  of  all  the  imposts' — that  '  the 
growers  of  it  do  to  that  extent,'  they  say,  '  pay  the  taxes  of  this 
government.'  *  *  *  We  send  to  Europe  about  1,700,000 
bales  of  cotton  now,  and  take  back  in  the  shape  of  cotton  goods  of 
all  sorts,  from  every  nation,  only  60,000  bales  In  all.  I  prove  this  in 
this  way  :  our  customhouse  furnishes  the  data  that  we  are  now  im- 
porting but  eight  million  dollars'  worth  of  cotton  goods  from  the 
whole  world.  Now,  by  casting  our  data  upon  the  difference  of  the 
raw  and  wrought  value  of  cotton,  we  can  come  at  the  fact.  The 
wrought  value  of  such  fine  goods  as  we  take  from  Europe,  Is  six 
times  the  raw.  Now,  If  eight  million  dollars  buy  the  wrought, 
by  the  Inverse  rule  of  three,  what  must  the  raw,  entering  in  It  as 
one  to  five,  cost  ?  The  answer  Is,  about  60,000  bales.  This  fact 
would  have  astonished  those  great  politicians  referred  to.  If  they 
had  ever  extended  their  minds  so  far,  or  If  their  prejudices  would 
have  suffered  it.     Were  our  custom,  therefore,  withdrawn  from 


282  REASONINGS    OF 

England,  it  would  not  be  felt  much.  This  fact  bears  directly  on 
the  idea,  that  England  will  not  take  our  cotton  unless  we  take  her 
goods,  and  shows  its  emptiness.  England  wants  our  raw  cotton 
for  her  other  customers  and  her  own  consumption,  and  must  have- 
it.  She  is  now  consuming  30,000  bales  a  week,  and  must  have 
all  of  1,-500,000  bales  to  make  up  her  quota  and  prevent  her  spin- 
dles stopping,  which  would  be  spasms  and  death  to  her  in  these 

times  of  general  thrift. 

******* 

"  Let  us  now  calculate  what  cotton  can  be  grown  for,  when 
prices  get  down  to  a  mere  support  for  master  and  slave.  With 
the  proper  economy,  by  the  owner  living  on  his  place,  deriving 
his  household  and  table  expenses  from  it,  and  clothing  and  feed- 
ing his  own  slaves,  his  annual  expenses,  counting  salt,  iron,  medi- 
cines, taxes,  wrapping  for  his  cotton,  and  overseer's  wages,  do  not 
exceed  two  cents  a  pound  on  the  product  or  crop  ;  all  over  that  is 
profit  in  their  sense,  that  is,  over  and  above  annual  expenses.  I 
will  give  the  details  to  make  this  clear.  A  plantation  of  tifty  hands, 
makes  the  average  of  seven  bales  to  the  hand,  weis-hino;  four  hun- 
dred  and  fifty  pounds  ;  this  is  three  hundred  and  fifty  bales.  Sup- 
pose two  cents  for  expenses  ;  this  amounts  to  $3,150  on  the  crop. 
This  crop,  say,  sells  for  four  cents  a  pound  net,  and,  clear  of 
charges  for  transportation,  insurance,  and  commissions  for  selling, 
leaves  $3,150  profit  for  the  luxuries  of  the  owner,  who  gets  his 
necessaries  out  of  the  plantation  by  living  on  it.  This  is  a  very 
pretty  sum  ;  and  half  of  it  would  be  ample  for  him,  which  would 
reduce  cotton  to  three  cents.  As  to  insurance,  unfortunately,  the 
slaves  not  only  insure  themselves,  but  give  a  large  increase,  which 
grows  up  with  the  owner's  children,  and  furnishes  them  with  out- 
fits by  the  time  they  need  them.  Now  I  will  go  into  a  calculation 
to  show  that  two  cents  a  pound  cover  the  annual  expense.  Here 
follow  the  items,  taking  a  plantation  of  fifty  hands  as  a  basis  :  for 
overseer,  $500  ;  for  salt,  $20  ;  iron,  $30  ;  medicines,  $20  ;  doc- 
tor's bill,  $100,  for  you  can  contract  by  the  year,  and  it  is  often 
done  at  two  dollars  a  head  ;  bagging  and  rope  to  wrap  it,  at  twelve 
and  a  half  cents  for  the  one,  and  five  cents  for  the  other,  amount 
to  $300  ;  taxes,  $100  ;  sundry  small  things,  $100,  all  told.  (The 
writer  speaks  from  experience,  for  he  is  a  planter  of  cotton  and 
owns  slaves.)  All  this  amounts  to  $1,170,  much  below  the  allow- 
ance of  two  cents  a  pound,  amounting,  as  we  have  seen,  to  $3,150. 
I  only  wish  to  show  that  we  can  grow  cotton  at  three  ceyits  a  povnd, 
and  have  a  living  profit.  *  *  *  The  cotton  culture  then  is 
sure  to  go  on  in  this  country,  at  any  price,  from  three  cents  up, 
that  the  market  warrants,  and  with  increased  energies.  These 
facts  warrant  us  in  asserting,  which  we  do  broadly  and  unquali- 
fiedly, that  we  can  grow  cotton  cheaper  than  any  other  people  on 
earth,   not  even   excepting  the   Hindoos.     The  consequence   of 


A    SOUTHERN    PLANTER.  283 

this  will  be,  that  we  will  take  the  market  of  the  whole  world,  and 
keep  it  supplied  with  cotton.  *  *  *  I  am  not  speaking  hypo- 
thetically,  when  I  say  th>e  United  States  can  grow  all  the  cotton 
wanted — have  slaves  and  land  enough  to  do  it,  and  even  overdo 
it.  This  country  can  raise  three  million  bales,  just  as  easily  as 
it  now  does  two  millions,  when  that  much  is  wanted,  and  then 
keep  ahead  of  the  consumption  far  enough  to  prcve?it  any  advance 
in  the  pice.  *  *  *  If  we  keep  cotton  down,  not  to  its  min- 
imum price,  but  to  five  or  six  cents,  it  will  cease  to  come  around 
the  cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  the  United  States  have  the  market 
of  the  world  just  as  certainly  as  at  three  cents.  *  *  *  She 
[England]  dare  not  decline  taking  our  cotton,  for  it  is  cheapest, 
and  because  she  has  built  up  her  manufactories  on  the  minimum 
price  of  the  raw  material,  and  buys  it  wherever  cheapest,  and  has 
conformed  all  prices  of  labor  and  goods  to  that  principle.  Eng- 
land has  in  France  and  Germany,  as  well  as  in  us,  rivals  to  her 
cotton  manufactures,  and  such  skilful  rivals,  too,  that  she  dare  not 
pay  more  for  the  raw  material  than  they  do.  If  she  were  to  pay 
two  cents  a  pound  more  for  cotton  than  we  do,  or  than  the  conti- 
nent of  Europe  does,  she  would  lose  her  hold  on  the  cotton  man- 
ufacture, and  her  opponents  would  take  her  markets.  T/tc  half- 
penny-a-pound  duty  now  levied  in  England,  will  have  to  give  way 
to  insure  her  success.  *  *  *  According  to  the  opinions  of  our 
most  deserving  and  most  skilful  commission  merchants  and  foe- 
tors,  our  own  spinners  are  now  worth  fully  two  cents  a  pound  to 
the  cotton  market  each  and  every  year,  by  the  competition  they 
create  with  the  Europeans.  *  *  *  Fears  have  been  expressed, 
that  '  should  we  get  under  way  by  the  stimulus  of  a  protecting 
tariff,  we  would  not  only  pass  the  dead  point,  but  go  ahead  beyond 
our  own  consumption,  so  as  to  aim  at  supplying  the  whole  world 
with  manufactures.'  *  *  *  Such  arguments  cut  like  two- 
edged  swords,  and  show  how  much  might  be  done  under  protec- 
tion. 

#  *  *   •  *  *  *  * 

"  Five  hundred  thousand  laborers  jJiit  to  work,  with  all  the  aids 
of  machinery,  could,  according  to  estimates  well  established  from 
facts  in  England,  produce  two  hundred  million  dollars'  worth  of 
goods.  If  we  went  up  to  the  consumption  of  the  country  only, 
less  than  one  half  of  this  sum  would  produce  much  wealth  and 
prosperity,  and  work  wonders  upon  this  nation.  If  we  went  beyond 
the  home  supply,  the  overplus  would  be  the  means  of  a  vast  bar- 
ter or  trade  with  South  America,  the  West  Indies,  the  Levant,  and 
China.  We  would  use  the  foreign  market  then  as  England  now 
does,  that  is,  to  vent  surplus  manufactures  upon.  Our  home  mar- 
ket would  increase  much  and  rapidly  from  the  increased  ability  all 
this  would  give,  and  the  thousand  springs  of  industry  that  would 
be  touched  by  the  operation,  including  its  transportations,  storages, 


284  REASONINGS    OF 

commissions,  agencies,  and  all  concerned  in  such  extended  trans- 
actions.    *     *     *     There  is  no  interest  that  ought  to  hail  the 
establishment  of  manufactures  louder  than  this   [cotton],  both  in 
reference  to  its  supplies  and  markets  ;  yet  nearly  all  the  growers  of 
this  great  staple  are  extremely  hostile  to  manufactures.     It  is  dis- 
couraging to  a  patriot  and  a  political  economist  to  see  this  hos- 
tility from  so  enlightened   a  source — to  see  that  prejudices  and 
party  do  carry  on  blindly  a  whole  people  to  the  most  suicidal  acts, 
without  giving  them  time  to  think  and  calculate  their  own  interests. 
The  shelves  of  every  merchant  would  convince  them,  if  they  would 
look,  that  all  their    supplies  are  already  cheaper,   and  better  in 
quality,  and  better  fitted   for  their  purposes,  than  they  w-ere  for- 
merly ;    and  this  brought  about  by  a  partial   or  very  imperfect 
carrying  on  of  manufactures.     Their  own  factors  tell  them  that 
the  Americian  spinners,  by  their  competition,  are  worth  annually 
two  cents  to  the  cotton  market.     Reason,  too,  tells  us  that  a  great 
deal   more  cotton  is  used  now  by  the  circumstance  of  the  Ameri- 
cans making  coarse  goods,  weighing  heavier,  and  out  of  our  own 
cotton,  than  would   be  if  we  got  those  things  from  England,  be- 
cause she  would  make  them  much  lighter  and  out  of  the  worthless 
Surats.     Our  taking  the  coarse-goods  market  from  England  will 
banish  altogether  these   Surats,  because  they  will  not  do  for  fine 
goods  such  as  then  would  be  left  to  England  to  make.      *      *      * 
Nothing  has  led   me  so  much  to  despair  of  this  country  and  its 
institutions,  as  the  want  of  thought  and  the  right  understanding  of 
their  interests  that  these   otherwise  enlightened   and  independent 
cotton-growers  have  manifested,  and  their  disposition,  in  the  most 
reckless  way,  to  throw  all  to  the  four  winds,  and  their  own  inter- 
ests among  them.     Manufactures  can  not  fail  to  benefit  all  raw  mate- 
rials.    An  increased  consumption  of  cotton  in  any  part  of  the  globe, 
in  the  present  free  and  enterprising  intercourse,  will  be  useful,  be- 
cause markets  find  their  level ;  and  let  a  vacuum  or  demand  be  cre- 
ated in  any  quarter  of  the  globe,  the  article  would  rush  in  to  fill  it. 
"We  have  extra  labor  enough  to  grow  all  the  silk  that  England 
and  the  north  of  Europe  need,  cheaper,  and  of  a  better  quality 
than  Italy  and   France  can  furnish.       The  sort  of  labor  that  we 
are  putting  to  the  silk  culture,  consists  of  women  and  children, 
such   as   will   not   be    missed    from    our    agricultural    operations. 

*  *  *  The  first  duty  of  all  good  government  is  to  look  to  its 
labor — insure  it  not  only  full  occupation,  but  the  greatest  product- 
iveness. Political  economy  abhors  idleness  worse,  if  possible, 
than  nature  does  a  vacuum.  It  is  worse  than  a  vacuum,  because 
gravity  rushes  forth  to  fill  the  vacuum  ;  but  idleness  is  a  grave 
where  lies  dead  and  buried  the  creative  genius  of  man — the  means 
given   to   him   by  the   God   of  nature   to   improve   his  condition. 

*  *  *  It  would  appear  to  one  dropped  from  another  world, 
unacquainted  with  all  our  interests  and  resources,  that  our  whole 


A    SOUTHERN    PLANTER.  285 

Congress  or  national  legislature  were  taken  or  subsidized  by  Eu- 
rope to  favor  all  their  productions  or  operations  exclusively — even 
to  the  total  disregarding  of  those  of  this  country.     It  would  seem 
to  such  that  Great  Britain  sat  enthroned  in  all  our  legislative  halls, 
and  dictated  all  their  enactments  regulating  industry  and  a  tariff; 
and  if  told  otherwise,  could  not  be  made  to  believe  that  some  laws 
and  most  important  regulations  were  not  the  results  of  bribes  on  the 
body  politic  by  the  superior  wealth  and  foresight  of  older  and  wiser 
nations.     Every  idle  finger  will  be  pointed  some  day  against  those 
short-sighted  and  unpatriotic  legislators,  who  left  it  in  sloth,  and  to 
vice,  and  mischief,  instead  of  stimulating  it  to  proper  action  and 
usefulness.     *     *     *     Capital,  when   not  permanently   invested, 
merely  seeking  interest  annually,  is  almost  sure  to  do  more  harm 
than  good,  because  those  branches  most  depressed  and  in  debt,  are 
the   first  to  come  forward  to  take  offered  loans,  to  pay  their  old 
debts,  under  a  hope  their  business  will  revive  so  as  to  justify  the 
transaction.     Alas  !   soon  they  become  convinced  that  the  capital- 
ist will  absorb  all  and  end  in  a  break-up  for  both.     *     *     *     This 
country,  like  a  young  giant,  knows  not  its  strength  or  its  resources, 
because   it   has  never   exerted   the   one   or  examined   the  other. 
Nothing  is  wanted  to  bring  forth  all  this,  but  a  permanent  policy, 
a  certainty  of  protection,  a  security  of  the  home  market.     All 
would  then  come  forth  and  show  themselves — capital,  labor,  raw 
materials,  a  market,  wealth,  comfort,  elegance,  taste,  and  indepen- 
dence.    As  soon  as  confidence  was  established,  they  would  flash 
forth,  as  the  gas-lights  when  touched  by  a  match.     No  country  is 
underlaid  so  universally  with  valuable  minerals  ;  and  they  lie  in 
its  extended  fletz  or  secondary  formation  in  horizontal  strata,  that 
can  be  followed  into  the  thousands  of  hills  and  ridges,  and,  lying 
above  the  valleys,  can  be  poured  forth,  without  shafts  or  drainings, 
to  the  fertile  plains,  water  powers,  and  navigations,  that  are  there 
found.     Had  this  young  giant,  with  its  free  limbs,  hold  of  these 
mines  of  wealth,  in  the  real  skilful  way,  he  could  glut  or  monop- 
olize all  markets,  both  in  the  raw  and  wrought  state.     These  hid- 
den treasures  need  a  protecting  tariff  to  uncover  them — its  induce- 
ment to  make  them  available,  and  wiser  statesmen  than  we  yet 
have,  to  put  all  in  train,  and  on  the  certainty  of  the  reality.   *    *    * 
The  raw  materials  give  much  more  support  to  lines  of  intercom- 
munication, than  the  wrought  goods  that  a  country  needs.     In  the 
carrying  of  raw  materials  and  agricultural  supplies  to  our  manufac- 
turers, and   interchanging  with   them  for  their  goods,  the  whole 
operation  is  American,  and  as  gratifying  as  profitable  to  Americans. 
When,  however,  a  selfish  foreigner  uses  them  to  start  along  his 
flimsy  drygoods,  perhaps  half  smuggled  in,  too  light  and  useless 
to  pay  much  toll,  yet  valuable  enough  to  greatly  tax  our  industry, 
if  bought  and  used,  the  scene  becomes  changed,  and  the  patriot 
feels  that  such  great  works  are  prostituted  to  unworthy  purposes. 


286  REASONINGS    OF 

for  which  they  should  not  be  constructed  or  intended.     The  inter- 
changes that  would  go  on  between  the  agriculturists  and  manufac- 
turers, and  the  growers  or  producers  of  the  raw  materials,  and 
those  who  give  to  them  available  shapes,  or  ship  them  off  to  a  for- 
eign market,  would  be  great,  and  offer  a  most  pleasing  picture  of 
prosperity.     *      *      *      Commerce  has  as  deep  an  interest  in  se- 
curing the  home  market  and  supply  as  manufactures  can  have — 
they  are  both  taken  up  in  supplying  it,  |w?-  nohile  sororum.    *    *    * 
Commerce  has  no  imtriotism  in  it,  when  based  uipon  foreign  supjilies. 
*     *     *     Had  we  not  seen  and  felt  the  truth  of  the  fact,  we  never, 
a  piori,  would    have   believed   for   a   moment,  that  any  nation 
would,  by  a  brave  and  bold  effort,  establish  liberty  and  indepen- 
dence, without  immediately,  as  a   first  principle,  looking  to  and 
insuring,  by   proper  laws   and   protection,   the   production   of  all 
things  necessary  to  the  daily  wants  of  the  people,  and  the  indepen- 
dence and  defences  of  its  government.     These  United  States  have 
too  truly  shown  a  case  to  the  contrary  of  all  this  ;   and,  after  a 
struggle  that  called  down  the  applause  of  all  the  world  upon  them, 
have  slouched   on   in   their  productions  and  consumptions,  as   it 
were   by  accident,   regardless   of  any  system   that  covered  their 
wants,  secured  their  independence,  and  guarantied  wealth.     When 
we  did  awake  to  these  things,  we  found  our  hands  manacled  by 
foreign  ties  and  bonds,  and  domestic  party  spirit,  in  such  a  way 
that  we  could  not  act. 

"  We,  or  rather  our  politicians,  or,  more  properly  still,  our 
demagogues,  have  always  been  too  busy  studying  party  interests, 
and  too  much  under  the  influence  of  party  spirit,  to  think  enough 
about  the  great  relations  of  commerce  and  manufactures,  to  under- 
stand them,  or  know  anything  about  their  bearings.  Hence  our 
manufacturing  interests  are  a  foot-ball,  continually  banded  about, 
and  up  and  down,  until  no  one  knows  on  what  to  count.  *  *  * 
When  the  fulcrum  is  furnished  by  nature's  God  to  this  young  Ar- 
chimedes [the  United  States],  it  still  fails  to  move  the  commercial 
world.  Our  commerce,  if  we  demanded  it,  might  double  with 
Eugland  around  the  great  capes  of  South  America  and  Africa, 
and  sweep  the  bays  of  Bengal  and  Bombay,  scour  with  her  the 
West  Indies,  run  with  her  through  all  her  various  colonies,  and  in 
every  port,  place,  colony,  or  mother-country,  be  a  part  of  herself 
as  to  facilities  secured  by  treaty.  No  nation  could  gainsay  us,  for 
we  would  be  in  possession  of  all  seas.  No  nation  could  war  upon 
us,  for  we  would  be  full  of  resources  and  wealth.  No  nation 
could  countervail  us,  for  we  would  control  all  the  productions 
necessary  to  her  existence.  We  would  stand  on  high  and  envia- 
ble ground,  placed  there  by  our  own  wisdom,  that  made  use  of 
natural  advantages  and  resources  too  valuable  to  nations  to  be 
placed  on  any  doubtful  footing.     This  young  Hercules,  that  stran- 


A    SOUTHERN    PLANTER.  287 

gled  not  the  serpent  in  its  early  grasp,  will  fall  like   Laocoon  in 

the  foldings  of  its  wrath. 

*  *  *  *  *  #  * 

"  One  third  |;«r^  of  the  people  who  produce  a  raw  material, 
cotton,  wool,  iron,  hemp,  silk,  tobacco,  flax,  or  any  other  such 
things,  can  and  do  work  them  up,  and  impart  to  them,  by  the 
operation.  Jive  values.  In  plain  mathematics,  one  manufacturer 
produces  in  value,  or  money,  five  times  as  much  as  the  one  en- 
gaged in  raising  the  raw  material.  *  *  *  w\  ^j^g  profits  of 
commerce  are  incidental,  and  have  reference  to  its  basis  and  sup- 
port. Like  the  light  of  a  satellite,  the  profits  of  commerce  are 
borrowed  and  reflected,  not  inherent  as  the  centre  sun  of  business, 
not  creative  as  the  producers  are.  #  *  *  England  has,  for 
instance,   four   hundred  millions  of  money  spinning  cotton,   and 

makes  Jifty  millions  of  'profit. 

******* 

"  England  stands  at  the  head  of  the  list,  both  for  wealth  and 
manufactures.  She  lives  in  wealth  and  luxury,  and  has  capital 
enough  to  buy  the  world,  if  offered  for  sale.  In  other  words,  she 
has  as  much  money  as  all  Europe  besides.  The  question  natu- 
rally arises,  how  did  she  acquire  it  ?  Not  by  her  agriculture,  for 
the  utmost  that  it  ever  did  was  to  feed  and  support  her,  and  now 
does  not  do  that  much.  Not  by  her  fisheries,  for  they  barely  sup- 
ply her  with  the  luxuries  and  products  of  the  ocean.  Not  by 
working  gold,  silver,  and  diamond  mines,  for  she  has  none  of 
them.  It  is  the  fruit  of  her  labor,  her  manufacturing  labor  and 
skill,  and  the  commerce  that  is  based  upon  it.  *  *  *  Eng- 
land, her  writers  say,  has  a  clear  income  in  money,  after  supply- 
ing herself  every  year,  of  two  hundred  millions  to  add  to  her  cap- 
ital ;  whereas  we  have  not  one  cent,  and  often  fall  in  debt  and 
behind,  after  supplying  and  buying  what  we  ought  to  make  at 
home.  #  *  *  « Let  us  have  our  workshops  abroad,'  said  the 
worst  politician  [General  Jackson]  that  ever  a  nation  was  cursed 
with.  We  have  them  abroad,  by  his  influence  mainly,  and  our 
masters  are  there,  too  ;  for  we  have  been  all  the  time  dependent 
on  them  for  our  necessaries.  As  well  might  we  say,  let  our  cap- 
ital be  abroad — let  our  liberty,  our  independence,  be  in  foreign 
keeping.  Had  he  lived  to  the  age  of  a  patriarch,  under  full  pen- 
itence, he  could  not  have  atoned  for  all  the  mischief  he  entailed 
on  this  nation,  and  the  disappointment  the  friends  of  liberty,  the 
world  over,  felt,  and  are  destined  to  feel,  from  his  visionary  acts 
and  policies. 

"  The  staples  produced  in  this  country  by  slaves,  say  cotton, 
sugar,  rice,  tobacco,  and  hemp,  that  would  have  had  no  existence 
without  them,  for  the  last  fifty  years,  have  averaged  fifty  million 
dollars  a  year,  which,  in  the  fifty  years,  amounts  to  the  enormous 


288  REASONINGS    OF    A    SOUTHERN    PLANTER. 

sum  of  twenty-five  hundred  millions.  This  sum  has  been  realized, 
and  constituted  nearly  the  whole  of  our  ability  with  which  to  pur- 
chase supplies  abroad.  Foreign  nations,  England  more  than  all 
the  others,  have  got,  enjoyed,  and  realized,  in  the  shape  of  capital, 
this  twenty-five  hundred  million  dollars,  and  we  have  consumed 
it,  and  not  a  vestige  of  it  left  behind.  *  *  *  This  people 
never  would  have  remained  inefficient  had  they  not  been  flattered 
and  lulled  by  the  proceeds  of  this  slave  labor.  It  employed  our 
shipping  and  commerce  so  much  that,  by  the  aid  of  our  merchants, 
the  slaveholders  have  governed  the  country,  and  kept  back  every 
other  great  interest.  The  country  is  now,  or  will  be,  in  a  situa- 
tion like  an  annuitant,  who,  depending  literally  on  the  annuity, 
finds,  by  some  revolution,  that  suddenly  stopped.  *  *  * 
Our  active  statesmen  have  turned  demagogues,  and  are  serving 
their  own  base  purposes  by  the  meanest  and  most  unprincipled 
intrigues  and  corruption,  instead  of  studying  the  true  policies  of 

the  country  and  carrying  them  into  effect. 

******* 

"  Had  we  not  a  scouring  trade  with  other  portions  of  the  world, 
that  brought  in  some  profit,  or  a  balance  in  our  favor,  our  trade 
with  England  would  ruin  us  in  a  few  years.  It  nov/  not  only 
takes  our  precious  gains  elsewhere,  but  all  the  spare  cash  we  have 
besides,  to  keep  it  up.  It  is  an  unpleasant  idea,  that  our  active, 
enterprising  whalemen  and  traders  have  to  put  in  requisition  all 
the  seas,  all  the  climates,  and  encounter  dangers,  disease,  and  in- 
tense labor,  not  to  enrich  us,  but  to  meet  this  English  balance  that 
is  swallowing  up  all  thus  raked  together,  as  well  as  all  at  home. 
*  *  *  Had  we  saved  for  fifty  years  the  annual  balance  Eng- 
land enjoyed  against  us,  it  would  have  amounted  to  five  Jmndred 
millions,  which,  realized  at  home,  would  have  nmch  enriched  us, 
and  might  have  put  quite  another  face  on  our  circumstances. 

It  is  of  little  consequence,  though  the  foregoing  extracts,  selected 
from  a  work  of  three  hundred  pages,  are  thrown  out,  as  a  sower 
scatters  seed  from  his  hand  over  the  field.  It  is  sowinij  li^ht  and 
information  that  few  can  fail  to  profit  by.  It  is  a  new  and  hopeful 
symptom,  when  "  a  southern  planter,  who  raises  cotton,  and  owns 
slaves,"  can  make  such  an  argument  as  this.  It  is  a  light  shining 
in  a  dark  place,  and  may  tend,  not  a  little,  to  dissipate  the  shades, 
which  have  so  long  brooded  over  that  wide  region  of  the  Ameri- 
can mind.  He  speaks  from  experience,  and  is  evidently  a  man 
that  understands  his  subject.  It  is  an  impressive  contrast,  from 
the  same  quarter,  to  the  argument  of  nullification  in  1832-'33. 
He  speaks  "  right  on  ;"  and  he  is  "  a  southern  planter." 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  289 


CHAPTER  XL 

HISTORY    OF    OPINION    ON    THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

Opinion  of  Presidents  in  Messages  to  Congress. — General  Jackson's  Letter  to 
Doctor  Coleman. — Opinion  of  the  Tammany  Society,  in  1819. — Opinion  of  the 
Framers  of  the  Constitution — of  the  First  Convention  at  Annapolis,  1786 — and 
of  the  First  Congress  under  the  Constitution. 

In  the  debate  of  the  compromise  tariff,  Mr.  Webster  said,  that 
the  protective  poUcy  began  with  the  tariff  of  1816.  Mr.  Clay 
said,  that  it  began  with  the  adoption  of  the  federal  constitution. 
Both  were  correct,  taken  as  they  meant.  Mr.  Webster  intended 
to  say,  that  the  then  present  system  of  tariff  legislation  began  with 
the  tariff  of  1816,  as  in  fact,  it  was  the  first  tariff  for  protection  in 
the  history  of  the  country.  Mr.  Clay  agreed  ;  but  for  the  purposes 
of  his  argument,  was  entitled  to  call  attention  to  the  chief  political 
design  of  the  constitution,  which  was  to  lay  a  platform  on  which 
to  build  the  protective  policy,  and  to  the  fact  that  the  first  Congress 
under  the  constitution  made  it  their  first  business  to  legislate  on 
the  subject. 

The  following  are  extracts  from  messages  of  presidents  of  the 
United  States  on  this  topic  : — 

"  The  advancement  of  agriculture,  commerce,  and  manvfacfures, 
by  all  ]}roj)e7-  means,  will  not,  I  trust,  need  recommendation  ;  but 
I  can  not  forbear  intimating  to  you  the  expediency  of  giving  effec- 
tual encouragement,  as  well  to  the  introduction  of  new  and  useful 
inventions  from  abroad,  as  to  the  exertions  of  skill  and  genius  in 
producing  them  at  home." — JFashi'/igt.o?i^s  Annual  Address. 

"  Congress  lias  repeatedly,  and  not,  withont  S2iccess,  directed  thei 
attention  to  the  encouragement  of  manufactures.      The  object  is  of 
too  much  consequence  not  to  insure  a  continuance  of  their  efforts  in 
every  way  which  shall  aj)pear  eligible." — Washington'' s  Last  An- 
mial  Address. 

"  To  cultivate  peace,  and  maintain  commerce  and  navigation  in 
all  their  lawful  enterprises ;  to  foster  our  fisheries,  as  nurseries  of 

Vol.  II.— 19 


290  HISTORY    OF    OPINION 

navio-ation  and  for  the  nurture  of  man,  and  to  protect  the  mamifac- 
turcs  adapted  to  our  circumstances — these,  fellow-citizens,  are  the 
landmarks  by  which  we  are  to  ^uide  ourselves  in  all  our  proceed- 
ings."— Jeffcrso7i^s  2d  Annual  Message. 

"  The  situation  into  which  we  have  been  forced  has  impelled  us 
to  apply  a  portion  of  our  industry  and  capital  to  national  manufac- 
tures and  improvements.  The  extent  of  conversion  is  daily  in- 
creasing, and  little  doubt  remains  that  the  establishments  formed 
and  forming,  will,  under  the  auspices  of  cheaper  materials  and  sub- 
sistence, the  freedom  of  labor  from  taxation  with  us,  and  of  pro- 
tecii/ior  duties  and  proldhitiojis,  become  permanent.'''' — Jefferson'' s  8th 
Anmial  Message. 

"  We  have  experienced  what  we  did  not  then  believe,  that  there 
exists  both  profligacy  and  power  enough  to  exclude  us  from  the 
field  of  interchanges  with  other  nations;  that  to  be  independent  for 
the  comforts  of  life,  we  must  fabricate  them  ourselves.  We  must 
now  place  our  manufacturers  by  the  side  of  the  agriculturist. 
The  former  question  is  now  suppressed,  or  rather  assumes  a  new 
form.  The  grand  inquiry  now  is,  shall  we  make  our  own  com- 
forts, or  go  without  them  at  the  will  of  a  foreign  nation  ?  He, 
therefore,  who  is  now  against  domestic  manufactures,  must  be  for 
reducing  us  either  to  a  dependence  upon  that  nation,  or  he  clothed 
in  shins,  and  live  like  beasts  in  dens  and  caverns.  I  am  proud,  to 
say  that  I  am  not  one  of  these.  Experience  has  taught  me  that 
mamifactxircs  are  now  as  necessary  to  our  independence  as  to  our 
comfort.'''' — Jefferson's  Letter  to  Benj.  Austin,  Esq.,  Boston,  1S16. 

"  The  revision  of  our  commercial  laws,  proper  to  adapt  them  to 
the  arrangement  which  has  taken  place  with  Great  Britain,  will 
doubtless  engage  the  early  attention  of  Congress.  It  will  be  wor- 
thy at  the  same  time  of  iheir  just  and  provident  care,  to  make  such 
further  alterations  in  the  laws  as  will  more  espec'ialhj  protect  and 
faster  the  several  branches  of  mamfacture  which  have  been  recently 
instituted  or  extended  by  the  laudable  exertion  of  our  citizens." — 
Madison's  Special  Message,  May  23,  1809. 

"  I  recommend  also,  as  a  more  effectual  safeguard,  and  as  an 
encour";ement  to  our  orowino;  manufactures,  that  the  additional  du- 
ties  on  imports  which  are  to  expire  at  die  end  of  one  year  after  a 
peace  with  Great  Britain,  be  prolonged  to  the  end  of  two  years 
after  that  event." — Madiso7i's  Special  Message,  May  31,  1814. 

"  But  there  is  no  subject  which  can  enter  with  greater  force  and 
merit  into  the  deliberations  of  Congress,  than  a  consideration  of 
the  means  to  preserve  and  promote  the  manufactures  which  have 
sprung  into  existence,  and  attained  unparalleled  maturity  throughout 
the  United  States  during  the  period  of  the  European  wars.  This 
source  of  national  independence  and  wealth  I  anxiously  recommend 
to  the  prompt  and  constant  guardianship  of  Congress." — Madison's 
Special  Message,  Fcbrnary  29,  1815. 


ON    THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  291 

"  In  adjusting  the  duties  on  imjjorts  to  the  object  of  revenue,  the 
injluence  of  the  tariff  on  manvfactures  will  necessarily  present  itself 
for  cojisideration.  However  wise  the  theory  may  be  which  leaves 
to  the  sagacity  and  interest  of  individuals  the  application  of  their 
industry  and  resources,  there  are  in  this,  as  in  other  eases,  excep- 
tions to  the  general  rule.  Besides  the  consideration  which  the 
theory  itself  implies  of  a  reciprocal  adoption  by  other  nations,  ex- 
perience teaches  that  so  many  circumstances  must  occur  in  intro- 
ducing and  maturing  manufacturing  establishments,  especially  of  a 
more  complicated  kind,  that  a  country  may  remain  long  without 
them,  although  sufficiently  advanced,  and  in  some  respects  pecu- 
liarly fitted  for  carrying  them  on  with  success.  Under  circum- 
etances  giving  a  powerful  impulse  to  manufacturing  industry,  it  has 
made  among  us  a  progress,  and  exhibited  an  efficiency,  which  jus- 
tify the  belief  that,  with  a  protection  not  more  than  is  due  to  the 
enterprising  citizens  whose  interests  are  now  at  stake,  it  will  become, 
at  an  early  day,  not  only  safe  against  occasional  competition  from 
abroad,  but  a  source  of  domestic  wealth  and  external  commerce. 
In  selecting  the  branches  more  especially  entitled  to  public  patron- 
age, a  preference  is  obviously  claimed  by  such  as  will  release  the 
United  States  from  a  dependence  on  foreign  supplies,  ever  subject 
to  casual  failures,  for  articles  necessary  for  the  public  defence,  or 
connected  with  the  primary  wants  of  individuals.  It  will  be  an 
additional  recommendation  of  particular  manufactures,  where  the 
materials  for  them  are  extensively  drawn  from  our  agriculture,  and 
consequently  impart  and  insure  to  that  great  fund  of  national  pros- 
perity and  independence,  an  encouragement  which  can  not  fail  to 
be  rewarded." — Madisori's  1th  A?inual  Message. 

"  Our  manufactures  will  likewise  rerpiire  the  systematic  and  fos- 
tering care  of  the  government.  Possessing,  as  ive  do,  all  the  raw 
inaterials,  the  fruit  of  our  ou-n  soil  and  industry,  we  ought  not  to 
depend,  in  the  degree  we  have  done,  on  supplies  from  other  countries. 
While  we  are  thus  dependent,  the  sudden  event  of  war,  unsought 
and  unexpected,  can  not  fail  to  plunge  us  into  the  most  serious 
difficulties.  It  is  important,  too,  that  the  capital  which  nourishes 
our  manufactures  should  be  domestic,  as  its  influence  in  that  case, 
instead  of  exhausting,  as  it  must  do  in  foreign  hands,  would  be 
felt  advantageously  oi>  agriculture,  and  every  other  branch  of  in- 
dustry. Equally  important  is  it  to  provide  at  home  a  market  for 
our  raw  materials  ;  as,  by  extending  the  competition,  it  ivill  enhance 
the  price,  and  protect  the  cultivator  against  the  casualties  hicident 
to  foreign  markets.^'' — Monroe^s  Inaugural  Address. 

"Uniformity  in  the  demand  and  price  of  an  article,  is  highly  de- 
sirable to  the  domestic  manufacturer.  It  is  deemed  of  great  im- 
portance to  give  encouragement  to  our  domestic  mamfacturcs.'''' — 
Monroe's  3d  Annual  Message. 

"  It  can  not  be  doubted,  that  the  more  complete  our  internal 


292  HISTORY    OF    OPINION 

resources,  and  the  less  dependent  we  are  on  foreign  powers  for 
every  national  as  well  as  domestic  purpose,  the  greater  and  more 
stable  will  be  the  public  felicity.  By  the  increase  of  domestic 
manufactures,  will  the  demand  for  the  rude  materials  at  home  be 
increased  ;  and  thus  will  the  dependence  of  the  several  parts  of 
the  Union  on  each  other,  and  the  strength  of  the  Union  itself,  be 
proportionally  augmented." — Monroe's  5th  Annual  Message. 

"  Satisfied  am  I,  whatever  may  be  the  abstract  doctrine  in  favor 
of  unrestricted  commerce,  provided  all  nations  would  concur  in  it, 
and  it  was  not  liable  to  be  interrupted  by  war,  which  has  never 
occurred,  and  can  not  be  expected,  that  there  are  other  strong 
reasons  applicable  to  our  situation  and  relations  with  other  coun- 
tries, which  impose  on  us  the  obligation  to  cherish  and  sustain  our 
manufactures." — Mo?iroe^s  6th  Annual  Mcssas-e. 

"  The  great  interests  of  an  agricultural,  commercial,  and  manu- 
facturing nation,  are  so  linked  in  union  together,  that  no  perma- 
nent cause  of  prosperity  to  one  of  them  can  operate  without  ex- 
tending its  influence  to  the  other.  All  these  are  alike  under  the 
protecting  power  of  legislative  authority,  and  the  duties  of  the 
representative  bodies  are  to  conciliate  them  in  harmony  together. 

"Is  the  self-protecting  energy  of  this  nation  so  helpless  that 
there  exists  in  the  political  institutions  of  our  country  no  power  to 
counteract  the  bias  of  foreign  legislation ;  that  the  growers  of  grain 
must  submit  to  the  exclusion  from  the  foreign  markets  of  their 
produce  ;  that  the  shippers  must  dismantle  iheir  ships,  the  trade 
of  the  north  stagnate  at  the  wharves,  and  the  manufacturers  starve 
at  their  looms,  while  the  whole  people  shall  pay  tribute  to  foreign 
industry,  to  be  clad  in  foreign  garbs  ;  that  the  Congress  of  the 
Union  are  impotent  to  restore  the  balance  in  favor  of  native  indus- 
try destroyed  by  the  statutes  of  any  realm  V" — Adams'  ^th  Ari- 
nual  Message. 

"  The  power  to  impose  duties  upon  imports  originally  belonged 
to  the  several  states.  The  right  to  adjust  these  duties,  with  a  view 
to  the  encouragement  of  domestic  branches  of  industry,  is  so  com- 
pletely identical  with  that  power,  that  it  is  difficult  to  suppose  the 
existence  of  the  one  without  the  other.  The  states  have  delegated 
their  whole  authority  over  imports  to  the  general  government,  with- 
out limitation  or  restriction,  saving  the  very  inconsiderable  reserva- 
tion relating  to  the  inspection  laws.  This  authority  having  thus 
entirely  passed  from  the  states,  the  right  to  exercise  it  for  the  pur- 
pose of  protection  does  not  exist  in  thein  ;  and,  consquently,  if  it 
be  not  possessed  by  the  general  government,  it  must  be  extinct. 
Our  political  system  would  thus  present  the  anomaly  of  a  people 
stripped  of  the  right  to  foster  their  own  industry,  and  to  counteract 
the  most  selfish  and  destructive  policy  which  might  be  adopted  by 
foreign  nations.  This  surely  can  not  be  the  case  ;  this  indispensa- 
ble power,  thus  surrendered  by  the  states,  must  be  within  the  scope 


ON    THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  293 

of  authority  on  the  subject  expressly  delegated  to  Congress.  In 
this  conclusion  I  am  confirmed,  as  well  by  the  opinions  of  Presi- 
dents Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison,  and  Monroe,  who  have 
each  repeatedly  recommended  this  right  under  the  constitution,  as 
by  the  uniform  practice  of  Congress,  the  continued  acquiescence 
of  the  states,  and  the  general  understanding  of  the  people." — 
Jacksori's  2d  Annual  Message. 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  letter  of  General  Jackson,  to 
Dr.  L.  H.  Coleman,  N.  C,  dated  Washington  City,  August  26, 
1824  :— 

*  *  *  *  u  Heaven  smiled  upon  and  gave  us  liberty  and  inde- 
pendence. The  same  Providence  has  blessed  us  with  the  means 
of  national  independence  and  national  defence.  If  we  omit  or 
refuse  to  use  the  gifts  which  he  has  extended  to  us,  we  deserve 
not  the  continuance  of  his  blessing.  He  has  filled  our  mountains 
and  our  plains  with  minerals — with  lead,  iron,  and  copper — and 
given  us  a  climate  and  soil,  for  the  growing  of  hemp  and  wool. 
These  being  the  great  materials  of  our  national  defence,  they  ought 
to  have  extended  to  them  adequate  and  fair  protection,  that  our 
manufacturers  and  laborers  maybe  placed  in  a  fair  competition  with 
those  of  Europe,  and  that  we  may  have  within  our  country  a  sup- 
ply of  these  leading  and  important  articles  so  essential  to  war. 

"I  will  ask,  what  is  the  real  situation  of  the  agriculturist? 
Where  has  the  American  farmer  a  market  for  his  surplus  produce  ? 
'Except  for  cotton,  he  has  neither  a  foreign,  nor  a  home  market. 
Does  not  this  clearly  prove,  when  there  is  no  market  at  home,  or 
abroad,  that  there  is  too  much  labor  employed  in  agriculture  ? 
Common  sense  at  once  points  out  the  remedy  :  Take  from  agri- 
culture in  the  United  States  six  hundred  thousand  men,  women, 
and  children,  and  you  will  at  once  give  a  market  for  more  bread- 
stuffs  than  all  Europe  now  furnishes  us  with. 

"  In  short,  sir,  we  have  been  too  long  subject  to  the  policy  of 
British  merchants.  It  is  time  we  should  become  a  little  more 
Americanized,  and  instead  of  feeding  paupers  and  laborers  of 
England,  feed  our  own;  or  else,  in  a  short  time,  by  continuing 
our  present  policy,  we  shall  be  paupers  ourselves. 

"  It  is  therefore  my  opinion,  that  a  careful  and  judicious  tariff 
is  much  wanted,  to  pay  our  national  debt,  and  to  afford  us  the 
means  of  that  defence  within  ourselves,  on  which  the  safety  of 
our  country  and  liberties  depends ;  and  last,  though  not  least, 
give  a  proper  distribution  of  our  labor,  which  must  prove  beneficial 
to  the  happiness,  wealth,  and  independence,  of  the  community. 
"  I  am  very  respectfully, 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"  Andrew  Jackson." 


294  HISTORY    OF    OPINION 

In  the  history  of  popular  opinion  on  this  subject,  the  most  re- 
markable item  is  to  be  found  in  the  "  Address  of  the  Society 
OF  Tammany,  or  Columbian  Order,  to  its  absent  members, 

AND  THE    MEMBERS  OF    ITS    SEVERAL    BRANCHES,   THROUGHOUT 

THE  United  States,  New  York,  1819."  Such  is  the  title  of 
the  document.  It  was  ushered  upon  the  public  under  a  solemnity 
and  sanction  of  previous  official  action,  the  record  of  which,  as  a 
preface  to  the  address,  is  as  follows  : — 

"  TAMMANY  SOCIETY,  OR  COLUMBIAN  ORDER. 

"  EXTRACTS  FROM  THE  MINUTES. 

''August  30,  1S19. 

"  Resolved,  That  a  committee  be  appointed  to  take  into  consid- 
eration the  subjects  of  Natio7ial  Econo?/ty  and  Domestic  Mannfac- 
turcs,  and  that  the  said  committee  draught  an  address  and  report  the 
same  to  this  society,  enforcing  the  necessity  of  encouraging  such 
desirable  objects,  and  that  the  said  address  be  directed  through  the 
public  prints  to  the  several  branches  of  this  society  throughout  the 
nation. 

"  October  4,  1819. 

"  The  address  on  the  subjects  of  National  Economy  and  Domestic 
Manufactures,  draughted  by  Brother  Woodward,  and  reported  by 
him  from  the  committee  of  seven  members  of  this  society,  having 
been  twice  distinctly  read,  at  two  several  weekly  meetings,  and  de- 
liberately considered  and  discussed  as  to  all  its  parts  and  conse- 
quences at  four  several  weekly  meetings,  the  members  having  been' 
previously  notified  of  the  said  meetings  respectively  through  the 
medium  of  the  public  prints,  it  Avas,  on  motion, 

"■Resolved,  That  the  said  address  be  adopted,  and  that  it  be 
signed  by  the  grand  sachem  and  secretary. 

'■'Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  correspondence  be  appointed, 
v,hose  duty  shall  be  to  cause  as  many  copies  as  they  may  think 
proper  of  the  said  address  to  be  printed  in  a  neat  pamphlet  form, 
at  the  expense  of  the  society,  and  distributed  in  such  manner  as  to 
them  may  seem  fit,  and  that  they  also  countersign  the  same,  and 
have  general  powers  of  correspondence  on  all  subjects  embraced 
therein,  and  connected  with  the  good  of  this  society." 

The  following  are  extracts  from  the  address  itself: — 

"  Brothers  :  A  deep  shadow  has  passed  over  our  land  :  a 
commercial  and  individual  gloom  has  created  a  universal  stillness. 
In  our  remotest  villages  the  hammer  is  not  heard,  and  in  our  larger 
cities  the  din  and  buetle  of  thrifty  industry  have  ceased.  The  phi- 
lanthropist, the  philosopher,  the  statesman,  the  patriot,  and  the  good 
man  of  every  description,  anxiously  inquire  the  cause. 

"  The  cause,  it  is  believed,  is  not  inlicrcnt  in  the  nation  ;  for, 
thanks  to  the  Almighty  Dispenser  of  good  gifts,  our  country  pos- 


ON    THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  295 

sesses  the  germs  of  interminable  progression,  the  sources  of  inex- 
haustible wealth  and  prosperity.  But  it  is  justly  to  be  feared,  that 
the  cause  is  seated  in  the  abuse  of  those  inestimable  gifts.  And  if 
this  should  be  found  to  be  the  truth,  sound  reflection,  and  the 
timous  and  prudent  adoption  of  means,  may  turn  our  subjects  of 
complaint  into  partial  and  transient  evils,  and  their  effects  into  a 
radical  and  perennial  good.  *  *  *  Perhaps  a  proportion  of 
even  the  present  embarrassments  may  be  traced  from  the  first  re- 
strictive measure  down  to  the  termination  of  the  late  war,  owing 
to  the  restraint  of  remittances  and  outward  cargoes,  and  the  em- 
barrassments in  procuring  foreign  receipts.  This  cause,  so  far  as 
it  is  defined  and  not  abused,  is  hallowed  at  the  shrine  of  patriot- 
ism ;  it  grew  out  of  a  principle  of  national  neccssitij  and  ri^s^ht,  to 
which  every  citizen  is  bound  to  bend  with  alacrity,  and  which  the 
bright  column  of  character  and  glory  which  arose  out  of  the  war 
casts  entirely  in  the  shade.  *  *  *  "pj^g  ^g^t  cause  of  distress 
is  the  sudden  introduction  of  inordinate  quantities  of  all  species  of 
foreign  production,  arising  from  false  peace  calculations,  which 
have  either  deadened  on  the  hands  of  our  merchants,  or  paralyzed 
other  operations  ;  which  have  produced  large  balances  against 
them,  and  extended  in  their  effects  to  the  immediate  or  indirect 
dealers  in  the  remotest  corners  of  the  community.  *  *  *  The 
evil  is  within  the  scope  of  legislation,  and  a  remedy,  although  sim- 
ple in  its  character,  would  be  universal  in  its  effects  upon  the  wealth 

and  morals  of  the  community. 

******** 

"  As  to  the  inundation  of  the  country  hy  foreign  goods,  that  is 
a  subject  of  wide  magnitude,  and  most  radical  interest  to  the  Amer- 
ican people.  A  remedy  for  this  evil  would  be  precious  as  rubies 
to  him  who  values  the  institutions  of  his  country,  and  glories  in  its 
indigenous  greatness.  It  is  true  that  the  false  peace  calculations 
constitute  but  a  partial  evil,  which  will  in  the  event  remedy  itself, 
so  far  as  the  nation  is  concerned.  And  it  is  equally  true,  that 
each  individual  should  import  no  more  than  he  may  think  he  can 
sell  to  advantage.  But  after  all,  it  will  be  found,  that  the  importa- 
tions on  most  occasions  will  be  far  beyond  our  wants,  which,  to- 
gether with  false  calculations  and  unfortunate  enterprises,  will 
create  a  balance  against  us.  The  remedy  for  all  this  is  one  most 
grateful  to  the  American  ear,  and  nearest  to  the  American  heart. 
Tt  is  the  encouragement  of  our  own  manufactures.  One  objection 
to  manufactures  is,  that  they  are  established  and  nourished  by  a 
prohibition  of  the  articles  manufactured  from  foreign  countries,  and 
that  the  government  will  lose  some  of  its  impost.  *  *  *  Better 
to  encourage  a  more  limited  commerce,  and  to  an  extent  just  com- 
mensurate to  our  wants,  after  the  most  magnanimous  scope  had 
been  given  to  our  domestic  resources.  Suppose  a  material  pro- 
portion of  the  articles  now  imported  were  the  staple  manufacture 


296  HISTORY    OF    OPINION 

of  the  country,  we  would  then  always  know  the  exact  stock  ou 
hand,  and  capable  of  being  produced,  and  graduate  our  transac- 
tions accordingly.  In  despite  of  the  abstract  reasoning  of  the  ene- 
mies to  manufactures  in  the  United  States,  it  will,  upon  close  ex- 
amination, be  found,  that  for  cheap  living  and  cheap  labor,  the 
United  States  may  in  a  short  time  be  rivalled  by  no  country  on 
the  globe.  *  *  *  The  eastern  states  present  many  strong  in- 
ducements  to  manufacture.  Even  the  slave  population  of  the  south- 
ern states  would  be  a  facility  to  manufactures  ;  and  its  easy  and 
profitable  occupation  in  this  way,  from  the  now  useless  child  to  the 
grown  man,  might  advance  the  cause  of  humanity,  greatly  aid  con- 
ditional laws  of  emancipation,  and  at  last  remove  the  greatest  objec- 
tion to  the  freedom  of  that  unfortunate  race  of  people,  the  inordi- 
nances  which  they  might  commit  by  coining  as  a  deluge  upon  the 
country.  *  *  *  The  mines  of  subterranean  wealth  and  material 
which  the  country  contains,  can  best  be  imagined  from  the  infallible 
evidences  which  the  experience  of  every  year  brings  forth.  The 
institution  and  wide  spread  of  manufactures  will  be  the  strong  lever 
to  disturb  their  hoary  slumbers,  subject  them  to  the  analysis  of 
science,  and  convert  them  to  the  most  practical  purposes  of  domes- 
tic comfort,  while  it  will  administer  a  kind  of  national  wealth  which 
will  never  forsake  us.  The  country  might  then  exclaim,  that  that 
government  was  wrong,  vrhich,  fastidious  of  popularity  and  some 
factitious  system  of  finance,  would  neglect  advantages  so  incalcu- 
lable ;  that  that  nation  was  unwise,  which,  from  false  delicacy  to 
the  people,  and  the  fear  of  a  few  direct  taxes  as  substitutes  for  what 
is  indirectly  paid,  should  suffer  so  beautiful  a  fabric  of  internal 
polity  and  resource  to  be  lost  to  the  present  and  coming  genera- 
tions. *  *  *  The  almost  total  absence  of  our  own  fabrics  has 
caused  the  introduction  of  those  of  the  most  spurious  kind  from 
other  countries ;  and  it  is  a  notorious  fact,  that  articles  to  a  serious 
amount  are  manufactured  abroad  for  the  express  purpose  of  being 
sold  at  auction  in  the  United  States.  By  this  our  manufacturer  is 
undersold,  and,  what  is  as  mortifying,  he  is  a  sufferer  from  the 
frauds  of  strangers.  The  remedy  against  our  being  surcharged 
with  foreign  goods,  and  the  means  of  introducing  manufactures,  is  to 
forbid  entirehj  the  importation  of  articles  which  can  be  on  any  tol- 
erable terms  manufactured  by  ourselves.  This  would  not  only  apply 
the  cure,  but,  from  the  identity  and  stamps  of  the  domestic  fabrics, 
prevent  its  being  evaded  by  smuggling.  Congress  should  not  be 
afraid  of  their  too-much-favored  system  of  indirect  taxation  upon 
the  consumer,  by  impost  ajid  tonnage.  It  is  often  a  golden  pill  to 
the  people,  and  destroys  the  responsibility  of  government.  This 
revenue,  from  changes  in  the  objects  of  commerce,  would  soon  find 
its  wonted  level,  and,  if  it  did  not  for  a  iev;  years,  let  the  public 
lands  supply  the  deficiency.  Those  lands  were  not  intended  to 
put  so  many  dollars  into  the  treasury,  but  to  administer  to  the  na- 


ON    THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  297 

tion  solid  and  permanent  wealth — a  wealth  which  the  latest  poster- 
ity will  feel,  and  which  the  American  patriot  should  be  proud  to 
bestow.  All  governments  should  remember  a  maxim  in  finance, 
more  precious  than  diamonds,  that,  '  when  the  cottage  is  wealthy, 
the  treasury  is  full.'  That  narrow  policy,  which  sees  all  objects 
through  the  medium  of  the  inecious  metals,  and  is  limited  to  the 
taste  or  fame  of  \hQ  fiscal  officer,  and  the  profits  of  the  coming  year, 

is  beneath  the  American  politician. 

******** 

"  Such  is  the  extent  and  variegations  of  our  territory — such  the 
cheapness  and  generosity  of  the  soil — such  the  facility  with  which 
sites  for  manufacturing  buildings  can  be  obtained,  and  such  the  aid 
which  those  sites  would  receive  from  the  extensive  application  of 
steam — such  the  low  prices  of  living  in  those  places  where  manu- 
factories will  eventually  rise,  and  the  consequent  moderate  terms 
on  which  labor  could  be  afforded — such  the  increasing  economy 
with  which  tuition  is  brought  to  the  doors  of  our  citizens — so  sin- 
uous and  diversified  their  enterprise- — so  high  the  inducement  for 
the  manufacturing  species  of  emigration — and  so  little  the  necessity 
of  affecting  health,  as  in  England  and  the  European  continent,  by 
crowding  numbers  together — and  withal,  so  free  and  equal  our 
laws — that  the  society  can  not  but  believe,  that  the  visions  of  the 
theorists,  and,  what  is  more  to  be  feared,  the  iyisimiations  of  the 
interested  and  designing  on  the  points  o^ practicahiUty ,  morals,  and 
health,  may  be  made  to  fall  before  the  more  rational  and  patriotic 
spirit  of  manufacture.  *  *  *  As  to  the  owners  of  the  establish- 
ments, it  can  never  be  feared,  in  a  country  like  ours,  where  agri- 
culture must  for  ages  be  so  decisively  predominant,  and  where 
commerce  and  the  mechanic  interests  would  so  equably  keep  them 
in  check,  that  they  would  ever  become,  by  overweening  influence, 
obnoxious  to  our  free  institutions.  But  perhaps  the  contrary  would 
result,  from  the  strong  necessity,  which  for  centuries  will  exist,  of, 
in  some  slight  degree,   counterpoising  the  colossal  weight  of  the 

agricultural  influence,  by  counteractive  interests. 

******** 

"  To  divide  and  conquer,  is  the  maxim  of  our  constitutional 
enemy.  The  encouragement  of  our  domestic  resources  will  make 
us  a  united,  jieople.  This  nation  will  become  one  great  family,  giv- 
ing and  taking  from  each  other.  Let  us,  then,  treasure  up  the 
maxim  of  wisdom,  that  concert  is  stronger  than  numbers.  Another 
benefit,  and  not  among  the  least  which  would  arise  from  the  en- 
couragement of  domestic  manufactures,  would  be  the  exclusion  of 
all  foreign  agents,  whether  Scotch,  English,  French,  or  German. 
This  species  of  cormorant  character  holds  in  its  hand  the  capital 
of  some  man  abroad,  who  never  intends  to  step  his  foot  upon  our 
shores,  and  with  this  capital  extracts  from  the  country  the  profits 
of  its  traffic,  on  a  perfect  commercial  equality  with  the  American 


298  HISTORY    OF    OPINION 

citizen.  This  is  continued  until  he  accumulates  a  giv^en  heap  of 
riches  for  himself  and  his  patron,  and  then,  after  oppressing  all 
around  him  to  wind  nj)  his  affairs,  he  modestly  returns  to  his  for- 
eign home,  and,  retiring  in  opulence,  contributes  to  the  wealth  and 
resources  of  that  nation  which  might  next  declare  war  against  us. 
This  is,  in  fact,  furnishing  the  sinews  of  war  to  other  nations,  for 
it  would  be  American  profits  on  which  this  agent  would  live  in  his 
own  country.  The  truth  is,  that  we  have  progressed  so  far,  that 
we  want  no  population,  and  should  receive  none,  except  those  who 
intend  to  spend  their  lives  and  increase  their  posterity  among  us. 
As  tiie  United  States  are  inhabited  by  more  foreign  agents  than 
any  nation  on  earth,  in  proportion  to  their  population,  it  will  appear, 
upon  calculation,  that  this  is  a  very  improvident  mode  of  parting 
with  the  national  treasure.  Banish  the  foreign  goods  as  far  as  our 
manufactures,  under  the  magnanimous  care  of  Congress,  can  ban- 
ish them,  and  the  visits  of  those  vultures  would  soon  cease.  In 
their  place  would  stand  the  honest  manufacturer,  receiving  a  fair 
profit  for  the  fabric  of  his  own  hand.  But  the  picture  of  evil, 
arising  from  these  foreign  agents,  has  not  been  sufficiently  ex- 
tended. Their  transactions  with  our  citizens  are  often  insidious 
and  oppressive.  They  have  not  the  sympathies  of  country  or  na- 
tional fellow-feeling  to  meliorate  their  cupidity.  In  their  indul- 
gences they  are  actuated  by  inlc.rest  alone,  and  in  their  enforcement 
of  debts  they  are  restrained  by  no  principles.  They  are  at  this 
moment  to  be  seen  in  swarms,  in  their  visits  to  the  interior  of  our 
country,  and  our  remotest  western  waters.  And  such  is  the  preju- 
dice with  which  they  are  viewed  by  the  honest,  but  embarrassed 
debtors  in  those  places,  that  they  have  entailed  upon  themselves 
the  name  of  that  gloomy  bird  which  hovers  over  and  lives  upon 

the  carrion  of  the  desert. 

**  ******** 

"  But  on  this  subject  of  great  foreign  importations,  let  us  always 
keep  in  remembrance,  that  even  our  iveallh,  as  a  nation,  will  not 
so  much  depend  upon  what  we  maij  receive  from  others,  as  upon 
what  we  can  call  exclusively  our  own.  The  farmer  and  landholder 
may  also  be  reminded,  that  Manufacture  is  the  handmaid  of  Agri- 
culture. The  increased  value  of  the  soil  over  our  vast  interior, 
would  soon  be  felt  in  the  rise  of  villaires  and  extensive  establish- 
ments,  which  this  active  and  thrifty  internal  system  never  fails  to 
produce.  *  *  *  As  this  society  solemnly  believe  that  the 
welfare  of  this  republic  is  strongly  connected  with  the  encourage- 
ment of  manufactures,  it  is  fervently  recommended  to  each  mem- 
ber to  give  them  a  ^)re/crr?2ce,- even  at  sacrifice,  should  it  be  neces- 
sary, whenever  opportunity  offers.  And  this  society  can  not  here 
refrain  from  expressing  its  opinion  of  the  very  high  and  honorable 
effect  it  would  have  upon  the  people  at  large,  were  the  officers  of 
government,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  to  be  foremost  in  set' 


ON    THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  299 

ting  this  example.  Those  who  are  friends  to  commerce  need  not 
fear  that  it  will  essentially  suffer  from  the  encouragement  of  manu- 
factures. The  commercial  capital  would  shift  to  other  objects  of 
direct  or  circuitous  commerce,  not  affected  by  manufacture,  and 
much  increased  by  our  becoming  carriers  ;  and  a  portion  of  our 
merchants,  who  have  been  tossed  on  the  precarious  ocean  of  for- 
eign commerce,  might  be  glad  of  an  opportunity,  sanctioned  by  the 
patronage  of  the  government,  of  vesting  their  capital  in  manufactur- 
ing institutions.  It  would  seem,  too,  that  the  progressive  and  rapid 
population  of  our  agricultural  territories  would  furnish  ample  vent 
for  our  domestic  manufactures  ;  for,  if  the  difference  of  price  be- 
tween foreign  and  domestic  articles  be  not  infinitely  greater  than 
despair  itself  would  anticipate,  the  reciprocities  of  internal  inter- 
course, the  distance  from  foreign  market,  and  the  laudable  pride 
of  the  country,  when  seconded  by  the  patriotism  of  Congress, 
would  insure  an  almost  exclusive  domestic  consumption.  Indeed, 
there  is  one  flattering  aspect  in  which  this  subject,  of  the  preserva- 
tion of  commerce  as  consistent  with  the  full  extent  of  our  manu- 
factures, may  be  viewed.  And  it  is  this  :  that  our  country  seems 
to  be  in  itself  almost  an  epitome  of  a  world,  as  to  the  various  objects 
of  commerce  and  intercourse  it  may  afford.  This  arises  from  the 
unexampled  variety  of  our  climates,  productions,  habits,  and  popu- 
lation, and  also  from  the  happy  and  magnificent  indentation  of  the 
whole  country  by  water-courses,  both  great  and  small,  affording, 
with  comparatively  little  assistance  of  art,  a  trading  intercourse 
commensurate  to  all  the  substantial,  and  most  of  the  sanguine  wants 
of  its  inhabitants.  Indeed,  such  is  the  figure  and  variety  of  this 
nation,  that  it  would  seem  to  possess  all  the  elements  of  universal 
polity  and  wealth.  For,  strike  out  of  existence  every  other  coun- 
try, and  we  should  find  within  ourselves  an  ample  field  for  agricul- 
ture, science,  mechanics,  commerce,  and  the  arts.  This  indeed 
gives  us  the  power,  if  we  choose  to  cultivate  it,  of  becoming  truly 
indei^e-Ddcnt  of  other  nations  :  for  in  war  we  are  a  defensive  nation ; 
and  this  state  of  things,  realized  by  the  wise  regulations  of  our 
government,  would  enable  us  at  all  times  to  stand  still,  with  the  least 
possible  frrjudice,  and  wait  for  our  enemies.  The  want  of  reci- 
procity— or  rather  the  wise  internal  policy  of  other  nations  as  to 
the  rights  of  foreign  agents — the  consumption  of  foreign  productions, 
and  the  encouragement  of  foreign  manufactures,  are  to  us  loud 
warnings  to  draw  to  ourselves,  and  cherish  the  indigenous  strength 
v.ith  which  Providence  has  blessed  us.  *  *  *  It  would  be 
found  that  the  encouragement  of  domestic  manufactures  in  the 
modes  above  pointed  out,  would  essentially  lead  to  habits  of  econo- 
my, both  in  the  'people  and  the  government,  as  such.  For  when 
this  highly  simple  and  American  system  shall  have  begun  to  ope- 
rate, many  concomitant  habits,  partaking  of  its  character,  will  be 
seen  in  its  train. 


300  HISTORY    OF    OPINION 

******** 

"  We  recommend  to  you,  brethren,  to  be  examples  of  modera- 
tion and  firmness  to  your  fellow-citizens,  and  to  hold  fast  of  those 
stern  revolutionary  principles  which  gave,  and  which  alone  can 
preserve,  your  iiidepeiidence. 

"  Clarkson  Crolius,  Grand  Sachem. 

"  James  S.  Martin,  Secretary. 

"  Countersigned  by — 

'  John  Woodward, 

*'  Clarkson  Crolius, 

"  Joseph  P.  Simpson,      ^        •  ^        ^  n 
,,  T  o   T\r  I  Committee  of   Cor- 

"  James  fe.  Martin,      ^     ^.„,^,,^„„,.„ 

"  Benjamin  Romaine, 
"  MatthewL.  Davis, 
"  William  INIooney, 
"  New  York,  October  4,  1819." 


respondence. 


"  Resolutions  of  the  Society  of  Tammany,  or  Columbian  Order. 

"  Passed  October  11,  1819. 

"  Resolved,  Tliat,  as  friends  to  our  country,  we  recommend  to 
our  brethren  of  the  different  societies  of  Tammany,  or  Columbian 
Order,  the  necessity,  as  well  as  moral  duty,  to  our  country,  our- 
selves, and  posterity,  of  refraining  from  every  species  of  useless 
extravagance  in  our  mode  of  living  ;  especially  in  furniture,  dress, 
the  table,  ostentatious  equipage,  and  expensive  amusements. 

"  Resolved,  That  we  will  discountenance  the  importation  and 
use  in  our  families  of  every  species  of  foreign  manufacture  or  pro- 
duction, which  can,  or  may  be  reasonably  substituted  by  the  fabrics 
or  productions  of  the  United  States. 

"  Resolved,  That,  as  '  economy  is  wealth,'  we  seriously  recom- 
mend to  our  brethren  throughout  the  United  States,  a  strict  and 
rigid  observance  of  this  great  moral  duty  in  their  families  and  social 


intercourse." 


It  will  perhaps  be  obvious,  that  these  extracts  from  the  records 
of  the  Tammany  society,  are  not  made  for  their  perfections  of 
style,  but  to  indicate  the  former  position  of  tiie  party  which  gov- 
erned the  country  under  the  Jackson  regime,  but  which  afterward 
surrendered  their  judgment  to  their  chief,  and  went  off  into  the 
opposite  extreme  of  free  trade. 

To  the  history  of  opinion,  presented  in  the  foregoing  cita- 
tions from  official  and  popular  sources,  might  be  added  the  main 
subject  of  the  deliberations  of  the  first  convention  of  delegates  from 
the  states  under  the  confederation,  at  Annapolis,  Maryland,  in 
1786,  which  was  the  protective  policy  ;  of  the  convention  of 


ON    THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  301 

u 

1787,  to  form  the  federal  constitution ;  of  the  constitution  itself, 
adopted  in  1789,  with  powers  to  carry  that  poHcy  into  effect ;  and 
of  the  second  act  of  the  first  Congress  under  the  constitution,  ^^/or 
the  encouragement  and  'protection  of  domestic  manufactures ^''^  &c., 
by  duties  on  imports — General  Washington,  the  president,  ap- 
pearing in  a  "  domestic  suit."  Fifteen  members  of  that  Congress 
were  also  members  of  the  convention  that  formed  the  constitution, 
and  were  of  course  well  acquainted  with  the  great  purpose  of  that 
instrument,  to  wit,  protection  of  American  labor,  industry,  and 
arts,  against  foreign  labor  and  arts.  The  citations  already  made 
from  executive  state  papers,  are  a  continued  echo  of  the  same 
opinion,  down  to  1830,  excepting  the  elder  Adams. 

But  the  "Address  of  the  Society  of  Tammany,"  and  General 
Jackson's  letter  to  Dr.  Coleman,  are  worthy  of  special  notice. 
When  this  address  was  published,  in  1819,  the  "  Society  of  Tam- 
many," as  stated  in  the  document,  had  been  in  existence  thirty 
years,  is  still  existing,  and  has  ever  been  at  the  head  of  that  polit- 
ical organization  in  the  United  States,  which  supported  General 
Jackson,  and  followed  his  lead  in  1833,  in  that  violent  crusade 
against  the  protective  policy,  which  was  shielded  at  the  time  only 
by  the  passage  of  Mr.  Clay's  compromise  bill,  and  which  both 
General  Jackson  and  they  had  previously  and  so  earnesdy  advo- 
cated. It  was  the  main  object  of  the  "  Address  of  the  Society  of 
Tammany,"  in  1819,  to  advocate  this  policy.  Taking  the  forego- 
ing extracts  from  their  address  of  1819,  as  a  sample,  it  can  not  be 
denied,  that  they  have  instructed  the  public  by  the  clearness  and 
force  of  their  reasoning,  that  they  have  furnished  a  laudable  in- 
stancexof  zeal  in  a  great  and  good  cause,  and  an  edifying  example 
of  patriotism.  The  only  exception  that  can  be  taken  to  it,  is, 
that  they  stood  more  than  erect,  were  a  litde  more  than  ortho- 
dox, on  this  subject.  The  sense  of  suffering  and  public  wrong, 
felt  at  that  time,  by  the  grievous  evils  of  free  trade,  are  their  apol- 
ogy for  this  excess  of  zeal.  They  advocated  a  prohibitory 
tariff,  and  proposed  that  the  United  States  should  retire  within 
themselves,  and  constitute  their  own  world  !. 

From  the  date  of  General  Jackson's  letter  to  Dr.  Coleman,  it 
will  be  seen,  that  he  was  not  satisfied  with  the  tariff  of  1816,  nor 
even  with  that  of  1824,  and  that,  by  "  a  judicious  tariff" — this 
is  the  origin  of  the  phrase — he  meant  something  more  than  either. 
He  reasons  like  a  man,  talks  like  a  patriot,  in  deep  sympathy  for 
the  condition  of  the  country,  which  then  had  not  begun  to  feel  the 


302  HISTORY    OF    OPINION 

restorative  effects  of  the  tariff  of  that  year — 1824.  Why  he  should 
afterward  have  apostatized  from  this  faith,  and  led  off  the  men 
of  "  Tammany,"  in  a  war  of  extermination  against  this  policy,  is 
a  problem  for  history,  and  is  at  least  partly  solved  in  other  parts 
of  this  work. 

General  Jackson's  proposal  in  this  letter,  which  he  calls  the 
"  remedy  of  common  sense,"  viz.,  "  take  from  agriculture  in  the 
United  States  six  hundred  thousand  men,  women,  and  children" — 
that  they  might  be  put  to  manufactures  and  other  useful  arts — has 
been  executed  ;  and  his  prediction,  that  it  would  "  at  once  give  a 
market  for  more  bread  stuffs,  than  all  Europe  now  furnishes  us 
with,"  has  also  been  much  more  than  realized. 

Taking  the  annual  report  of  Mr.  Ellsworth,  commissioner  of 
patents,  for  January,  1845,  as  to  the  quantity  of  agricultural  prod- 
ucts of  the  United  States  for  1844,  and  reducing  them  to  the 
prices  current  of  1845,  it  will  be  found,  that  the  aggregate  value 
of  the  products  of  1844,  in  round  numbers,  was  $500,000,000  ; 
and  that  the  aggregate  value  of  the  following  articles,  to  wit,  corn, 
wheat,  cotton,  hay,  oats,  potatoes,  sugar,  tobacco,  and  rice,  by  the 
same  rule,  is  8400,000,000.  The  annual  average  exports  of  the 
United  States  may  be  assumed  to  be  about  $100,000,000,  of  which 
the  products  of  the  soil  are  about  $75,000,000,  or  one  seventh  of 
all  the  agricultural  products.  Of  these  exports,  somewhat  over 
two  thirds  is  cotton.  For  the  year  ending  30th  of  June,  1S44, 
the  exports  of  cotton  amounted  in  value  to  $54,063,501.  The 
honorable  Charles  Hudson — a  gentleman  of  reliable  accuracy — 
stated  on  the  floor  of  Congress,  in  1842,  that  the  consumption  of 
Massachusetts  alone,  of  the  products  of  other  states,  in  one  year, 
was  as  follows  : — 

Cotton,  185,000  bales $7,000,000 

Flour,  620,000  barrels 4,000,000 

Corn  and  other  grain,  8,730,000  bushels 2,800,000 

Coal,  175,000  tons 1,300,000 

Wood,  189,000  cords 1,300,000 

Wool,  8,000,000  pounds 3,200.000 

Lumber  of  all  kinds 7,600,000 

Beef,  pork,  hams,  lard,  butter,  cheese,  horses,  cattle,  pig  lead, 
tar,  pitch,  iron,  sugar,  molasses,  rice,  staves,  and  other 
articles 14,800,000 

Total $42,000,000 


The  rest  of  New  England  is  supposed  to  consume  annually  of  the 
products  of  the  states,  west  and  south,  about  $50,000,000.  New 
England  alone,  therefore,  in  consequence  of  her  manufactures,  me- 


ON    THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  303 

chanic  and  other  arts,  affords  a  better  market  for  the  products  of 
the  country,  chiefly  agricultural,  and  including  cotton,  than  all  the 
world  foreign  to  the  United  States.  The  market  of  all  the  other 
states,  created  by  the  same  cause,  is  probably  equal  to  that  of  New 
England,  and  throughout  the  Union  this  home  consumption  is  an- 
nually and  rapidly  increasing.  In  1S32,  home  manufactures  con- 
sumed two  hundred  thousand  bales  of  cotton  ;  in  1844,  four  hun- 
dred thousand.  The  present  (1845)  home  consumption  of  raw 
cotton,  is  estimated  at  one  fourth  of  the  entire  product  of  two 
millions  of  bales,  by  which  the  wrought  value,  which  is  four  or 
five  times  the  value  of  the  raw  material,  and  all  the  costs  of  ex- 
port and  import,  are  saved  to  the  country,  besides  the  market  and 
other  business  which  the  factories  afford  to  agricultural  and  other 
pursuits. 

This  plan  of  General  Jackson,  therefore,  in  his  letter  to  Dr. 
Coleman,  in  1824,  has  been  accomplished  on  a  scale  far  beyond 
his  conception  at  the  time,  and  the  happy  consequences  then  pre- 
dicted by  him,  have  followed,  though  not  by  his  instrumentality — 
followed  in  spite  of  all  his  subsequent  hostile  influence,  armed 
with  the  power  of  the  chief  executive  of  the  nation. 

The  effect  of  General  Jackson's  influence,  as  derived  from 
the  means  of  his  elevation,  and  from  his  power  as  chief  magistrate, 
was,  that  it  robbed  the  nation  of  its  sound  judgment,  and  charged 
it  with  prejudices,  by  appealing  to  the  lowest  passions,  and  setting 
the  poor  at  war  with  the  rich — a  state  of  feeling  which  will  probably 
take  half  a  century  to  rectify,  if  it  is  ever  done.  How  else  could 
the  "  Society  of  Tammany,"  and  the  party  they  controlled,  have 
been  driven  so  entirely  from  the  ground  they  occupied  in  1819  ? 
The  true  policy  of  the  country  was  never  stated  better,  or  more 
distinctly  developed,  or  more  boldly  advocated,  than  by  them  at 
that  time.  Their  good  sense,  untrammelled  by  extraneous  influ- 
ences, moulded  into  shape,  and  stimulated  to  action,  by  the  com- 
mon and  wide-spread  calamities  of  the  country,  hit  upon  the  true 
policy,  marked  it  out,  and  put  it  forward  more  boldly  than  any 
form  in  which  it  was  ever  presented  by  a  statesman.  It  was  a 
movement  of  the  people,  which  is  not  addicted  to  the  cautious  lan- 
guage of  statesmen.  General  Jackson,  in  his  letter  to  Dr.  Cole- 
man, echoed  the  same  policy.  But  a  few  years  afterward,  occu- 
pying a  favorable  position,  he  seized  the  mind  of  his  great  and  tri- 
umphant party,  snatched  from  its  deep  foundations  this  wholesome 
and  sound  doctrine,  which  had  grown  up  there  in  its  primitive 


304  HISTORY    OF    OPINION,    ETC. 

and  natural  bed,  and  scattered  it  to  the  winds  of  heaven.  Instead 
of  being  guided  by  their  own  judgment,  the  people  were  thence- 
forth, for  a  protracted  period,  swayed  by  the  will  of  a  leader,  till 
they  lost  sight  of  the  landmarks  which  they  themselves  had  set 
up.  "Democracy"  was  then  transformed,  imbibed  an  unwonted 
spirit,  to  be  led  and  governed,  instead  of  leading  and  governing — 
was  fashioned  into  a  tool. 

But  it  ought  not  to  be  assumed,  that  the  public  mind  can  never 
be  brought  back  to  that  genuine  democratic  feeling  and  indepen- 
dence of  judgment,  which  characterized  the  eloquent  and  vigorous 
"Address  of  the  Society  of  Tammany,"  in  1819.  When  this 
personal  influence  of  one  man  shall  have  died  away,  when  the 
prejudices  he  infused  into  the  popular  mind,  so  utterly  subversive 
of  common  judgment,  shall  have  subsided — unless  other  equally 
fatal  influences  shall  come  in  to  prevent — it  may  be  hoped  thai 
reason  will  resume  her  seat,  and  common  sense  her  empire.  As 
the  "Society  of  Tammany,"  with  the  whole  country,  had  been 
taught  by  sad  experience,  when  their  address  of  1819  was  sent 
forth,  there  has  also  been  experience  enough  since  that  time,  to  re- 
inculcate  the  same  lesson,  and  restore  sanity  to  the  public  mind. 
Let  the  same  party  that  was  thus  led  astray,  read  their  own  words, 
and  let  tiiem  have  a  chance  to  reimbibe  their  own  spirit,  of  former 
years,  and  their  own  democratic  pride  and  self-respect  will  carry 
them  back  to  that  solid  foundation,  on  which  they  once  stood. 

The  design  of  this  chapter,  was  not  to  go  over  the  wide  field 
which  the  head  of  it  might  seem  to  promise  ;  but,  first,  to  exhibit 
some  of  the  authorities  on  this  subject  in  the  public  history  of  the 
country  ;  and  next,  to  show,  from  an  authority  which  can  not  be 
controverted,  the  position  on  the  protective  policy,  which,  in  their 
early  history,  was  occupied  by  the  party  who  supported  General 
Jackson  in  his  attempts  to  break  it  down,  and  who,  since  he  led 
them  astray  from  that  sound  doctrine,  so  ably  vindicated  by  them 
in  1819,  have  been  so  violently  opposed  to  it.  This  history  is 
instructive,  and  shows,  that  they  were  led  off  by  authority,  and  not 
by  reason.  General  Jackson,  as  will  have  been  seen,  at  the  same 
time,  occupied  the  same  ground  of  fidelity  to  the  protective  prin- 
ciple, which  also  proves,  that,  if  he  had  good  reasons  for  maintain- 
ing that  position  then,  he  had  not  afterward  any  good  reason  for 
abandoning  it.  The  causes  of  this  change  have  been  exposed  in 
other  parts  of  this  work. 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  305 


CHAPTER  XII. 

POLITICAL  ECONOMY  AS  IT  RESPECTS  THE  PROTECTIVE  POLICY. 

Protective  Duties  not  a  Tax,  but  a  Rescue  from  Taxation. — A  Sketch  of  Taxa- 
tion in  Great  Britain. — Adequate  Protection  saves  the  Country  fifty  per  cent, 
in  the  Cost  of  Articles  protected. — The  Parties  who  Realize  this  Saving. — 
How  the  Protective  Policy  distributes  its  Benefits  to  all  Classes. — Meaning  of 
the  Balance  of  Trade. — History  of  its  Results  against  the  United  States. — Its 
Results  in  Favor  of  Great  Britain. — Effects  of  the  Tariff  of  1842. — Importance 
of  Domestic  Commerce. — The  Protective  Policy  necessary  to  countervail  the 
Machine  Power  of  Great  Britain. — Necessary  to  the  Capital  of  Labor. — How 
the  Nation  ran  in  Debt. — Relative  Position  of  European  Capital  and  Labor  to 
American  Capital  and  Labor. — The  Laissez-Faire  Principle. — Great  Britain 
not  returning  to  Free  Trade. — The  only  Way  to  have  a  Sound  and  Adequate 
Currency. 

It  is  not  proposed,  under  the  lead  of  the  general  head  of  this 
chapter,  to  plunge  into  the  entire  range  of  political  economy,  but 
only  so  far  as  it  comprehends  the  protective  policy,  and  grows  out 
of  the  long  debate  which  Mr.  Clay  has,  during  his  public  life, 
maintained,  on  his  part,  before  the  country. 

Vast  as  is  the  field  that  has  been  surveyed  under  his  guidance, 
and  overwhelming  as  are  the  facts  and  reasonings  adduced  by  him 
in  vindication  and  support  of  his  views  on  this  subject,  there  are 
yet  other  considerations  and  other  facts,  appertaining  to  this  policy, 
which  may  deserve  some  notice — not,  indeed,  as  indicating  defect 
in  the  arguments  of  Mr.  Clay,  but  as  mere  accretions  to  the  nucleus 
which  he  has  formed,  such  as  time  and  events  have  suggested  and 
brought  to  light.  Some  of  them,  indeed,  are  points  which  he  has 
noticed,  but  for  want  of  opportunity,  has  not  so  much  elaborated. 

The  importance  of  the  question,  whether  protective  duties  are 
a  TAX  on  the  consumers  of  articles  protected,  is  vital  to  the  con- 
troversy— is,  in  fact,  to  a  great  extent,  the  controversy.  And 
yet  it  is  assumed  by  one  side,  that  they  are  a  tax,  and  this  is  the 
ground  of  objection.  It  has  also,  to  a  great  extent,  been  conceded 
by  the  other  side,  and  the  batde  has  been  chiefly  fought  on  false 
issues,  or  issues  superfluous,  embarrassing,  and  tending  to  per- 
plexity, in  diverting  the  parties  from  the  true  ground  of  debate. 

Vol.  II.— 20 


306  POLITICAL    ECONOMY    AS    IT    RESPECTS 

Mr.  Clay  has  with  great  candor  admitted,  in  a  part  of  his  speech 
of  February  12,  1S33,  that  "  in  general  it  may  be  taken  as  a  rule, 
that  the  duty  upon  an  article  forms  a  portion  of  its  price."  But 
this  was  an  incidental  remark,  candidly  rendered,  in  connexion 
with  a  showing  of  an  unwarrantable,  because  uncertain  and  unre- 
liable, conclusion  arrived  at  by  the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  as 
part  of  the  basis  of  his  estimates.  It  is  on  account  of  the  falla- 
cious character  of  this  technical  proposition — which  may  be  al- 
lowed to  be  technically  correct,  though  practically  deceptive — that 
this  part  of  the  estimate  of  the  secretary,  based  on  the  assumed 
principle,  that  duties  are  parts  of  prices,  was  justly  arraigned  by 
Mr.  Clay  ;  and  if  it  had  occurred  to  him  at  the  moment,  or  been 
thought  necessary,  he  would  probably  have  shown  the  fallacy  or 
deceptive  character  of  the  rule.  That  he  so  regarded  it,  is  plain 
from  his  own  words  :  "  Now  no  calculation  can  be  more  uncertain 
than  that."  But  the  proposition,  as  a  technicality  in  political  sci- 
ence, is  applied  alike  when  the  consumer  gets  the  article  cheaper 
in  consequence  of  the  duty,  as  when  he  pays  more.  But  Mr. 
Clay  has  proved  abundantly,  that  the  operation  and  effect  of  the 
protective  policy  in  this  country  has  generally  been  to  cheapen  the 
articles  protected,  by  extending  the  range  of  competition,  and  in- 
creasing supply  relative  to  demand.  In  the  early  history  of  infant 
establishments,  protected  by  duties  on  imports,  prices  of  the  arti- 
cles thus  protected  may,  in  some,  perhaps  in  most  cases,  be,  for  a 
time,  enhanced^  but  it  does  not  follow,  that  even  then  they  are  a  tax 
to  the  consumers.  The  consumers  may  be  benefited  in  finding  a 
market  for  their  own  products,  in  consequence  of  this  protection, 
to  a  greater  amount  than  the  increased  prices  on  these  articles. 
This  is  a  sound  doctrine  of  political  economy,  and  is  the  invari- 
able operation  of  the  protective  policy.  The  benefit  may  not  fall 
precisely,  and  in  exact  measure,  where  it  is  due  ;  but  sooner  or 
later,  directly  or  indirectly,  in  one  form  or  another,  all  consumers 
of  protected  articles,  thus  enhanced  in  price,  will  get  their  equiva- 
lent. How  much  more  are  the  consumers  of  protected  articles 
benefited,  when  these  articles  are  cheapened  in  consequence  of 
protection  ? 

The  technical  proposition,  therefore,  that  duties  form  parts  of 
prices,  seems  to  lead  to  practical  error.  It  can  not,  except  in  cer- 
tain cases,  be  true,  as  for  example,  it  is  not  true  when  the  duties 
are  greater  than  the  prices.  Mr.  Clay  mentions  an  instance  when 
duties  on  lead  were  two  to  one  of  the  price.     It  is  absurd  to  sup- 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  307 

pose  that  such  duties  enter  inio  the  price.  On  unprotected  arti- 
cles, when  imposed  for  revenue,  generally,  this  rule  applies, 
though  it  is  not  a  certain  and  exact  measure.  On  protected  arti- 
cles, it  is  rarely  true,  and  never  in  any  case  can  it  be  a  reliable 
measure. 

The  false  notion,  that  protective  duties  are  a  tax,  in  the  sense 
of  a  burden,  has  led  to  all  the  hostility  which  the  protective  policy 
has  encountered.  To  arrive  at  the  truth,  the  proposition  should 
be  reversed,  and  read  thus :  Free  trade,  on  one  side,  leads  to  a 
system  of  taxation  by  foreign  powers  and  foreign  factors,  and  the 
jirotective  policy  operates  as  a  rescue  from  and  a  shield  against 
such  wrongs. 

On  account  of  the  importance  of  this  proposition,  it  may  be 
well  to  spend  a  few  words  in  illustrating  it.  In  the  first  place, 
when  a  manufacturing  nation,  like  Great  Britain,  has  gained  an 
exclusive  market  for  any  of  its  products  in  a  foreign  country,  the 
factors  are  able  to  command  their  own  prices.  The  home  govern- 
ment, aware  of  this,  imposes  exorbitant  excise  and  other  duties 
on  these  articles,  all  of  which,  in  such  a  case — there  being  no  com- 
petition— enter  into  the  prices,  and  are  paid  by  the  consumers. 
Suppose  the  consumers  are  citizens  of  the  United  States.  It  will 
follow,  that  these  taxes,  amounting  to  not  less  than  50  per  cent, 
of  the  cost,  are  paid  by  American  citizens,  for  all  that  they  con- 
sume of  such  articles,  to  support  the  British  government,  estab- 
lished church,  aristocracy,  and  all  other  institutions  of  that  em- 
pire. It  is  a  tax — and  an  enormous  one — without  disguise  or 
qualification.  Such  was  the  actual  condition  of  the  American  col- 
onies previous  to  1776.  Though  the  evil  has  been  relieved  since 
the  establishment  of  American  independence,  it  has  never  been 
entirely  abated.  The  United  States  have  always  been  one  of  the 
best  customers  of  Great  Britain,  on  such  terms  as  to  pay  all  the 
British  imposts  and  excises  on  the  articles  consumed. 

To  show  how  the  people  of  the  United  States  have  been  taxed 
as  customers  of  Great  Britain,  in  the  consumption  of  her  manu- 
factures, it  is  only  necessary  to  exhibit,  as  nearly  as  practicable, 
the  average  amount  of  her  imposts  on  the  raw  material  of  her 
manufactured  products,  and  of  her  excises  on  the  implements  and 
business  of  manufacture,  through  all  stages  to  the  final  act  of  ex- 
port. The  following  extracts  from  a  congressional  document  of 
the  house  of  representatives,  No.  296,  3d  session,  27th  Congress, 
pp.  500-501,  may  serve  as  a  basis  of  this  calculation  : — 


308  POLITICAL    ECONOMY    AS    IT    RESPECTS 

"  England  levies  no  direct  taxes  upon  her  colonies,  or  rarely  is 
it  done.  But  by  indirect  taxes  they  give  four  Jijths  of  their  pro- 
ductive wealth  to  the  support  of  the  mother-country.  It  was  that 
support  which  she  derived  from  the  thirteen  [North  American] 
colonies,  and  it  was  for  that  alone  she  resisted  their  independence. 
She  desired  to  produce,  and  that  they  should  be  forced  to  consume  ; 
and  of  all  that  they  consumed,  at  least  four  Jifths  went  into  the  na- 
tional treasury  at  home,  after  supporting  her  farmers  and  mechan- 
ics. ...  It  is  generally  alleged,  that  a  man  pays  15  shillings  for 
the  use  of  government,  out  of  every  20  shillings  he  spends  in 
England.  Some  have  stated  the  public  tax  at  17  shillings  in  the 
pound.  Let  us  take  one  instance  in  the  article  of  beer.  The 
land  pays  a  tax  ;  the  barley,  when  malted,  pays  an  excise  of  six- 
pence a  bushel ;  hops  pay  one  penny  a  pound  ;  the  beer,  when 
brewed,  pays  an  excise  greater,  in  some  cases,  than  the  original 
value  ;  all  the  persons  who  labor  in  the  premises  contribute  to  the 
national  revenue,  by  their  sundry  consumptions,  to  the  amount  of 
three  fourths  of  the  whole  price  of  their  labor.  It  follows,  then, 
that  the  people  of  this  country  contribute  in  like  proportion  to  the 
support  of  foreign  governments,  upon  all  that  they  purchase.  In 
1836,  we  imported  more  than  $70,000,000  worth  of  foreign  arti- 
cles/rce  of  duty.  The  effect  was,  that  they  who  purchased  these 
articles,  paid  not  one  cent  to  the  support  of  our  own  government, 
while  at  least  four  fifths  of  that  amount  went  into  the  treasuries 
of  foreign  governments,  to  support  kings  on  their  thrones,  parlia- 
ments that  make  laws  prohibiting  our  productions,  and  foreign  ar- 
mies and  navies." 

It  is  supposed  by  the  writer  of  these  pages,  that  the  above  esti- 
mates of  indirect  taxes  paid  by  British  colonies,  and  of  the  public 
domestic  tax  of  Great  Britain,  may  be  too  large.  It  is  at  any  rate 
large  enough  for  the  purpose  now  in  view,  to  reduce  it  to  an  av- 
erage of  fifty  per  cent.,  which  could  doubtless  be  maintained.  It 
will  be  seen,  that  all  these  taxes  must  necessarily  enter  into  the 
prices  of  the  articles  to  the  consumers  in  foreign  countries,  beside 
the  profits  of  the  manufacturer,  the  costs  of  transportation,  and 
the  charges  of  jobbers  and  retailers. 

The  following  rhetorical  sketch  of  British  domestic  taxation, 
ascribed  to  the  pen  of  Henry  Brougham,  now  Lord  Brougham, 
could  not  have  been  without  foundation,  considering  the  quarter 
from  which  it  comes,  and  though  it  furnishes  but  iew  specific  facts, 
is  not  less  instructive,  than  eloquent: — 

"  Taxes  on  every  article  that  enters  the  mouth,  or  covers  the 
back,  or  is  placed  under  the  feet;  taxes  upon  everything  that  is 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  309 

pleasant  to  see,  hear,  feel,  smell,  or  taste;  taxes  upon  warmth, 
light,  and  locomotion ;  taxes  on  everything  on  the  earth  and  the 
waters  under  the  earth — on  everything  that  comes  from  abroad,  or 
is  grown  at  home ;  taxes  on  the  raw  material,  and  on  every  new 
value  that  is  added  by  the  labor  and  art  of  man;  taxes  on  the 
spices  that  pamper  man's  appetite,  and  on  the  drug  that  is  admin- 
istered to  his  disease;  taxes  on  the  ermine  that  decorates  the 
judge,  and  on  the  rope  that  hangs  the  criminal ;  taxes  on  the  poor 
man's  salt,  and  on  the  rich  man's  dainties ;  taxes  on  the  ribands  of 
the  bride,  and  the  brass  nails  of  her  coffin ; — at  bed  or  at  board, 
couchant  ou  leva/it,  we  must  pay.  The  schoolboy  spins  his  taxed 
top ;  the  beardless  youth  manages  his  taxed  horse,  on  a  taxed  sad- 
dle, with  a  taxed  bridle,  on  a  taxed  road ;  and  the  dying  English- 
man, pouring  his  medicine  which  has  paid  seven  per  cent.,  into  a 
spoon  that  has  paid  fifteen  per  cent.,  flings  himself  back  on  his 
chintz  bed  which  has  paid  twenty-two  per  cent.,  makes  his  will  on 
a  stamp  that  has  paid  eight  pounds,  and  expires  in  the  arms  of  an 
apothecary  who  has  paid  one  hundred  pounds  for  the  privilege  of 
putting  him  to  death.  His  whole  property  is  then  taxed  from  two 
to  ten  per  cent,  in  probate,  and  large  fees  are  demanded  for  bury- 
ing him  in  a  church.  His  virtues  are  handed  down  to  posterity  on 
taxed  marble,  and  he  is  gathered  to  his  fathers  to  be  taxed  no 
more." 

The  last  is  a  questionable  statement,  judged  by  the  preceding 
one.  If  his  marble  monument  is  taxed,  he  is  taxed  till  the  morn- 
ing of  the  resurrection,  if  marble  can  last  so  long.  It  would 
seem,  according  to  this,  that  the  Englishman  is  taxed  for  the  priv- 
ilege of  coming  into  the  world,  taxed  all  the  way  through  the 
world,  and  not  only  taxed  on  his  passage  out  of  the  world,  but 
EVER  after!  But  according  to  the  table  exhibited  by  Mr.  Clay," 
cited  in  a  former  chapter,  he  can  afford  it.  His  industry  is  pro- 
tected by  his  government,  and  all  the  world,  foreign  to  Great  Brit- 
ain, with  which  she  trades,  bears  the  chief  burden  of  her  taxes,  as 
the  result  of  her  policy. 

The  taxes  paid  to  Great  Britain,  in  countries  foreign  to  herself, 
by  the  consumers  of  the  products  of  her  manufactories,  amounting 
to  not  less  than  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  cost,  will  exhibit  the  range 
open  for  reduction  of  prices  in  the  protected  articles  of  American 
manufactures,  and  for  other  items  of  saving  to  the  people  and  gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States,  under  adequate  protection.  It  may 
be  assumed  as  an  average  of  fifty  per  cent,  under  the  system  of 
coamiercial  intercourse  now  and  of  late  existino;  between  the  two 
countries.  Of  course,  though  the  American  tariff  were  much 
higher  than  it  is,  so  long  as  it  is  not  prohibitory,  and  so  long  as  any 


310  POLITICAL    ECONOMY    AS    IT    RESPECTS 

fraction  of  this  fifty  per  cent,  remains  for  the  British  exchequer, 
the  trade  is  beneficial  to  that  government  and  country,  and  will  be 
desired.     It  will  be  seen  by  this  view,  that  the  protective  policy  of 
the  United  States,  encouraging  and  fostering  domestic  manufac- 
tures, so  that  they  can  come  into  competition  with  British  products, 
and  rival  them,  not  only  in  the  home  market,  but  abroad,  there 
ought  to  be  and  must  be  a  reduction  of  prices  in  the  articles  pro- 
tected.    Accordingly  it  has  been  found,  that  such  is  the  result. 
Mr.  Clay  proved  it  in  1832  and  '33;  and  the  Hon.  Charles  Hud- 
son, in  a  report  from  the  committee  on  manufactures,  in  the  house 
of  representatives,  document  420,  1st  session,  28th  Congress,  has 
proved  the  same  thing.     The  following  are  some  of  the  facts: 
The  depression  in  the  price  of  23  different  kinds  of  manufactured 
iron,  from  1840  to  1844,  ranges  from  10  to  46  per  cent. — average 
23  per  cent. — a  result  effected  under  the  increase  of  protective 
duties.     In  a  list  of  twenty-two  different  and  chief  materials  for 
ship-building,  such  as  are  imported,  the  fall  of  prices  from  1842 
to  1844,  ranges  from  2  to  35  percent. — average  17^  per  cent. — 
all  under  the  tariff  of  1842.     In  a  list  of  nine  articles  of  Ameri- 
can hardware  protected  by  increased  duties  of  the  present  tariff, 
the  fall  of  prices  from  1841  to  1844,  ranges  from  13  to  30  per 
cent. — ^^average  15  per  cent.     The  tables  appended  to  Mr.  Hud- 
son's report  go  on  with  quotations  of  prices  current,  before  and 
after  the  present  tariff,  in  regard  to  numerous  articles  of  domestic 
manufacture  enjoying  increased  protection  against  foreign  produ- 
cers, and  showing  an  almost  universal  depression  of  prices  as  a 
consequence  of  protection,  in  a  measure  corresponding  with  the 
above-cited  instances.     But  the  experience  of  the  people  in  sup- 
plying their  wants,  will  have  been  to  them  the  most  conclusive  ar- 
gument.    The  free-trade  orator  will  in  vain  cry  out,  that  the  poor 
man  has  to  pay  six  cents  more  a  yard  for  his  shirt,  in  consequence 
of  the  tariff,  when  the  poor  man  himself  is  able  to  look  him  in  the 
face,   and  say,   "Why,   sir,   how  can  that  be? — I  gave  only  Jive 
cents  a  yard  for  the  shirt  I  have  on.     Do  you  mean  to  say  that, 
without  the  tariff,  I  could  have  got  it  for  one  cent  a  yard  less  than 
nothincr?''^ 

o 

The  prices  on  cotton  fabrics,  since  the  system  of  protection 
commenced  in  1816,  though  it  has  been  imperfect  and  fluctuating, 
have  fallen,  for  shirts,  from  25  cents  a  yard  to  5  cents;  for  sheets, 
from  32  cents  to  7  cents  a  yard ;  checks,  from  32  to  8  cents  a 
yard;  striped  and  plain   ginghams,  from  26  to  8  cents  a  yard; 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 


311 


printed  calicoes,  from  20  cents  a  yard  in  1826  to  9  cents  in  1844; 
and  so  on.  Doubtless  improvements  in  machinery,  and  reduced 
prices  of  the  raw  material,  have  had  something  to  do  with  it;  but 
these  facts  would  only  account  for  a  fraction  of  the  difference. 

The  following  statement,  made  with  great  care  and  accuracy  by 
a  commission  merchant  of  Boston,  trading  in  the  goods  enumer- 
ated, exhibits  the  wholesale  prices  at  Boston,  of  the  principal  arti- 
cles manufactured  at  Lowell,  &c.,  for  eleven  successive  years,  on 
the  first  of  May : — 


CO 
00 

CO 
CO 

CO 
CO 
1— ( 

00 
CO 
00 

CO 

00 
1— i 

o 

CO 

T— 1 

00 

00 

CO 

00 

00 

in 

00 

T— t 

Light  sheetings 

Heavy  sheetings. . . 

Light  shirtings 

Drillino"^ 

10| 

111 

101 

9 

lOi 

7i 

7 

6f 

5| 

7 

6f 

121 

121 

121 

10 

111 

8 

7| 

n 

6| 

8i 

n 

7| 

81 

8i 

6 

7f 

5-1 

5| 

5 

H 

5f 

5| 

m 

131 

14 

11 

m 

9 

9 

7| 

8i 

8i 

8i 

A  comparison  of  the  average  of  the  above  prices  before  the 
tariff  of  1842,  with  the  average  afterward,  is  probably  a  fair  ex- 
hibit of  the  effect  of  that  measure. 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  letter,  written  in  1845,  by  a 
gentleman,  allowed  by  high  authority  to  be  "one  of  the  most  saga- 
cious merchants  in  this  or  any  other  country,"  speaking  from  his 
knowledge  and  observation,  in  answer  to  inquiries  on  this  subject: — 

"The  prices,  however  [of  cotton  goods],  will  be  reduced  within 
a  year  by  the  introduction  of  the  product  of  a  portion  of  the  three 
hundred  thousand  spindles  now  in  a  course  of  construction.  You 
may  safely  maintain  that  every  article  that  can  be  exported  by  our 
own  manufacturers,  and  compete  with  British  merchandise,  must 
be  sold  to  the  consumer  at  home  chcajyer  than  it  can  he  imjjorted. 
This  is  the  case  with  every  description  of  coarse  cottons.  The 
iron  of  Pennsylvania  requires,  and  now  enjoys  the  highest  protec- 
tion, and  we  shall  have  iron  low  enough,  if  the  duty  on  it  stands 
for  seven  years.  There  is  no  doubt  in  my  mind  that  the  country 
will  derive  immense  advantages  from  such  protective  duties  as  will 
invite  capital  to  develop  the  natural  resources  that  exist  around  us. 
Iron,  coal,  wool,  cotton,  hemp,  &c.,  we  can  produce  in  abun- 
dance, and  use  them  too  in  every  shape  and  form  that  they  can  in 
England.  Supply  and  demand  always  did  and  always  will  regulate 
prices." 

It  is  supposed  by  some,  that  it  will  not  take  more  than  three 
years,  under  the  tariff  of  1842,  to  accomplish  the  object  regarding 
iron,  for  which  the  writer  of  this  letter  allows  seven  years. 


312  POLITICAL    ECONOMY    AS    IT    RESPECTS 

Mr.  Clay  has  shown  in  the  citations  already  made  from  him, 
HOW  the  protective  policy  operates  to  reduce  the  prices  of  manu- 
factured articles,  and  it  is  seen  that  the  facts  correspond  with  the 
doctrine.  There  are  occasional  and  transiently  existing  excep- 
tions, arising  from  accidental  causes,  as  for  example  the  high  price 
of  the  raw  material.  When  that  is  wool,  the  American  farmer  has 
the  benefit ;  or  if  the  raw  material  be  any  other  American  prod- 
uct, it  is  all  saved  to  the  country,  and  in  various  ways  distrib- 
uted among  all  classes. 

It  is  manifest,  therefore,  that  duties  imposed  to  bring  American 
manufactures  into  existence,  and  to  sustain  them,  are  so  far  from 
being  a  tax,  on  consumers  of  the  articles  thus  protected,  that  they 
actually  reduce  the  prices.  A  man  who  chooses  to  drink  London 
porter,  pays  twice  as  much  as  for  American  porter  equally  good  ; 
and  a  nightcap  of  British  manufacture  costs  three  times  the  price 
of  the  American  fabric  of  the  same  description.  In  these  little 
things  the  prices  of  foreign  products  are  still  kept  up,  and  the  im- 
positions still  practised  ;  though  in  most  things  prices  have  been 
brought  down  by  competition. 

But  the  saving  to  the  country  is  of  vastly  greater  importance 
than  this  difference  in  prices  to  consumers.  It  is  the  saving  of 
the  whole  50  per  cent,  of  the  cost  that  goes  into  the  British  ex- 
chequer, or  some  other  foreign  exchequer,  not  to  speak  of  the 
profits  of  foreign  factors,  and  costs  of  importation.  This  50  per 
cent,  remains  in  the  country,  instead  of  going  out  of  it,  and  is  dis- 
tributed, one  fraction  among  consumers  by  reduction  of  prices  ; 
another  fraction  among  the  operatives  in  the  manufactories  and  me- 
chanic shops,  to  afford  them  subsistence  and  sustain  the  price  of 
American  labor,  which  are  three  to  one  of  wages  for  the  same 
kind  of  labor  in  Europe  ;  another  fraction  goes  to  pay  interest  on 
investments  ;  another  to  farmers,  gardeners,  fishermen,  wood  and 
coalmen,  and  all  the  varieties  of  other  American  labor  and  indus- 
try which  are  employed  to  supply  the  wants  of  these  establish- 
ments ;  another  to  the  various  branches  of  transportation  and  traf- 
fic, to  commissioners,  storage,  and  agencies,  which  they  put  and 
keep  in  operation  ;  and  another  goes  into  the  public  treasury  from 
imposts,  which  afford  this  protection,  and  thus  saves  the  people 
from  being  taxed  to  support  their  own  government.  In  these  and 
other  ways,  which  people  rarely,  almost  never,  think  of,  the  entire 
50  per  cent.,  or  one  half  of  the  costs  of  manufactured  products, 
which  would   otherwise  go  into  foreign   exchequers,  to    support 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  313 

kings,  princes,  aristocrats,  nobility,  and  all  the  various  extrava- 
gances of  monarchical  governments  and  institutions,  with  their  ar- 
mies and  navies,  is  saved  to  the  country,  and  distributed  among 
all  branches  of  American  labor  and  industry.  Thus  does  the  pro- 
tective policy,  by  rearing  and  maintaining  domestic  manufactures 
and  mechanic  arts,  rescue  the  country  from  an  enormous  and  op- 
pressive system  of  taxation  by  foreign  powers  and  foreign  factors, 
and  retain  the  funds  for  the  increase  of  national  wealth  and  private 
prosperity.  Is  it  not  then  a  gross  misnomer  to  call  protective  du- 
ties a  TAX,  when,  in  fact,  they  are  a  deliverance  from  being  taxed 
by  foreign  powers,  and  when  they  cheapen  the  articles  protected, 
in  exact  proportion  as  the  home  products  are  encouraged  and  sus- 
tained ? 

It  is  sometimes  said,  that  the  protective  policy  takes  more  care 
of  manufactures  and  mechanic  arts,  than  of  agriculture.  That 
may  be  true,  while  the  former  are  in  the  infancy  of  their  existence, 
or  when  the  object  is  to  call  them  into  existence.  A  man  does 
not  require  tlie  same  nurture  as  a  child.  Agriculture  is  the  natu- 
ral vocation  of  man,  and  may  perhaps  be  said  never  to  be  in  any 
other  state  than  that  of  manhood.  It  has  at  least  been  claimed  to 
be  the  natural  calling  of  the  American  people  by  the  advocates 
of  free  trade,  and  is  generally  asserted  by  them  to  need  no  pro- 
tection. But  for  thirty  years  past,  during  the  general  peace  of  the 
world,  since  the  cheaper  labor  of  Europe  and  other  foreign  parts, 
began  to  send  its  surplus  agricultural  products  to  the  United  States, 
thereby  showing  that  they  required  little  or  no  supply  from  this 
quarter,  it  has  been  found  necessary  to  throw  the  shield  of  the  pro- 
tective policy  over  the  interests  of  agriculture  in  the  United  States, 
as  well  as  over  those  of  navigation,  manufactures,  and  the  me- 
chanic arts  ;  and  the  average  amount  of  protection  given  to  the 
following  agricultural  products,  by  the  tariff  of  1842,  is  50  per 
cent. — which  is  higher  than  the  average  protection  given  to  man- 
ufactures— to  wit :  on  cotton,  wool,  beef,  pork,  bacon,  lard, 
cheese,  butter,  potatoes,  flour,  wheat,  oats,  and  hemp,  in  all  thir- 
teen articles,  besides  which  adequate  protection — or  that  which 
was  intended  to  be  adequate — is  extended  to  the  remaining  list  of 
the  products  of  husbandry.  The  annual  average  aggregate  of 
imports  into  the  United  States,  for  the  five  years  preceding  1842, 
of  cotton,  wool,  hemp,  beef  and  pork,  hams  and  bacon,  cheese, 
butter,  lard,  potatoes,  flour,  and  wheat,  thirteen  articles,  was 
$2,341,000 — of  which  the  potatoes  imported  into  Boston  in  one 


314  POLITICAL    ECONOMY    AS    IT    RESPECTS 

year  amounted  to  $41,000  !  And  the  annual  average  of  exports 
of  agricultural  products,  other  than  cotton,  from  the  United  States 
to  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  including  animal  food  and  an- 
imal products,  for  the  abovenamed  five  years,  was  only  $1,474,- 
719  !  Hence  the  necessity  of  a  more  effective  protection  to  the 
interests  of  agriculture,  which  was  given  in  the  tariff  of  1842. 
It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  the  statement,  that  agricultural  in- 
terests are  not  cared  for  in  the  protective  policy,  is  incorrect. 

But  the  indirect  protection  extended  to  the  interests  of  agricul- 
ture by  the  tariff,  is  more  important  and  more  effective,  than  that 
which  is  direct,  because  it  is  much  greater  in  amount.  It  has 
been  ascertained,  and  well  certified,  that  the  Glenham  woollen  fac- 
tory, at  Fishkill,  New  York,  with  a  capital  of  $140,000,  gives 
profitable  employment  to  $1,422,000  worth  of  other  American 
capita],  chiefly  agricultural,  in  items  as  follows:  66,000  sheep, 
$2  a  head,  $132,000  ;  22,000  acres  of  pasture-land  to  feed  the 
sheep,  in  Dutchess  county,  supposed  to  be  worth  $50  an  acre, 
$1,100,000  ;  farms  employed  to  the  extent  of  2,600,  worth  $70 
an  acre,  $182,000  ;  other  capital  to  furnish  teazles,  firewood,  coal, 
provender,  &c.,  &c.,  $8,000.  Total  $1,422,000.  Consequently, 
if  $140,000  of  a  manufacturing  capital  employs  $1,422,000  of 
other  capital,  then  the  $300,000,000  of  manufacturing  capital  of 
the  United  States,  at  the  same  rate,  would  employ  other  capital  of 
the  country  to  the  amount  of  $3,047,142,857,  or  about  three 
thousand  millions  of  dollars.  This  is  doubtless  an  unexpected,  it 
is  even  an  astonishing  result.  It  may  be,  that  other  manufacto- 
ries, different  in  kind,  do  not  employ  an  equal  proportion  of  other 
capital ;  there  are  doubtless  some  which  do  not ;  but  some  may 
employ  a  greater  proportion,  enough  even  to  swell  the  aggregate. 
The  vastness  of  the  amount,  at  the  lowest  possible  estimate,  is 
sufficient  to  show  the  importance  of  manufactories  to  the  various 
occupations  and  interests  of  the  country,  more  especially  to  agri- 
culture. There  is  no  occupation,  however  humble,  no  man,  how- 
ever poor,  that  is  not  materially  affected  and  essentially  benefited 
by  them.  The  wool-growing  interests  of  die  country,  which 
are  chiefly  connected  with  manufactories,  and  sustained  by  them, 
are  estimated  at  two  htmdrcd  millions  of  dollars,  and  the  farmers 
of  the  country  receive  annually  from  the  manulactories,  for  all 
their  various  supplies,  an  aggregate  of  sixty-six  millions  of  dollars, 
which  is  nearly  nine  times  as  much  as  the  avails  of  all  exports  of 
flour,  beef,  and  pork,  to  all  parts  of  the  world.     Massachusetts,  a 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  315 

great  manufacturing  state,  alone  consumes  annually  more  than  forty 
millions  of  dollars  of  the  products — chiefly  agricultural — of  other 
states,  which  is  nearly  a  moiety  of  all  exports  of  every  descrip- 
tion to  foreign  countries. 

It  is  estimated,  that  the  manufactories  of  the  United  States  con- 
sume annually  twenty  millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  flour,  corn, 
pork,  beef,  rye,  buckwheat,  oats,  barley,  rice,  fish,  potatoes,  butter, 
cheese,  fowls,  and  other  esculents;  and  the  countless  variety  of  the 
mechanic  arts  and  handicraft  pursuits,  doubtless  consume  as  much 
more. 

But  the  most  important  function  of  the  protective  policy  on  the 
interests  of  agriculture — so  silent  in  its  operation  as  scarcely  to  be 
noticed  by  common  observers,  but  which,  when  mentioned,  must 
strike  every  one  with  great  force — is  its  effect  in  steadily  sustain- 
ing a  demand  for,  and  the  prices  of,  agricultural  products.  Foreign 
markets  for  the  agricultural  products  of  the  United  States,  other 
than  cotton,  are  always  uncertain,  continually  fluctuating,  and  in  a 
time  of  general  peace  the  whole  foreign  world  does  not  consume 
so  much  of  them  as  the  state  of  Massachusetts  alone  demands  from 
other  states,  over  and  above  the  products  of  her  own  soil — and 
that  solely  in  consequence  of  the  existence  of  her  manufactories 
and  mechanic  arts.  It  has  indeed  been  found  necessary  to  impose 
protective  duties  to  prevent  the  influx  of  foreign  agricultural  prod- 
ucts to  cheapen  those  of  the  United  States — a  fact  which  shows 
that  American  farmers  can  not  depend  on  foreign  markets,  and 
would  be  essentially  injured  by  free  trade  in  the  products  of  their 
labor. 

The  prices  of  agricultural  products  are  subject  to  more  fluctu- 
ation than  the  products  of  manufacture,  on  account  of  excess  or 
deficiency  of  supply  by  more  or  less  favorable  seasons.  But  the 
tables  of  Mr.  Hudson's  report,  before  cited,  show  that  they  have 
generally  and  considerably  improved  under  the  operation  of  the 
tariff  of  J  842.  The  average  fall  in  the  prices  of  some  products, 
from  1S42  to  1844,  has  been  9^  per  cent.,  while  the  average  rise 
in  the  majority  has  been  25  per  cent.  But  the  saving  to  agricul- 
turists in  the  prices  of  the  products  of  manufacture,  by  reason  of 
a  protective  tariff,  should  be  added  to  this  account  for  the  true 
economical  result,  which,  as  will  be  seen,  would  very  nmch  en- 
hance the  benefit.  The  practical  operation  of  a  protective  tariff, 
for  the  increase  of  prices  of  agricultural  products,  is  very  simple, 
and  may  be  thus  explained  :  All  agricultural  products  are  com- 


316  POLITICAL    ECONOMY    AS    IT    RESPECTS 

paralively  gross  and  heavy,  and  consequently  more  expensive  in 
being  carried  to  a  remote  market.  Suppose  the  cost  of  transpor- 
tation from  the  remote  west  to  the  eastern  market  be  100  per  cent. 
In  other  words,  that  the  products  are  only  worth  half  as  much  in 
the  place  where  they  are  grown,  as  in  the  place  where  they  are 
consumed.  Add  as  much  more  for  the  expense  of  delivery  in  a 
foreign  market,  and  the  price  to  the  producer  is  reduced  to  07ie 
third  of  the  price  at  the  place  of  destination.  But  bring  the  mar- 
ket half  way  toward  the  producer,  and  the  price  is  raised  one  third. 
Bring  it  to  his  door,  and  his  price  is  trebled.  This  is  precisely  the 
principle  of  the  theory  of  protection,  and  its  practical  effect  on 
agricultural  interests.  By  encouraging  and  protecting  domestic 
manufactures,  the  market  is  brought  home,  and  the  expense  of 
transportation  is  saved.  Further  :  All  who  work  at  manufactures 
and  trades  established  by  a  protective  policy,  are  withdrawn  from 
agricultural  pursuits,  and  give  to  the  residue  employed  in  agricul- 
ture better  chances  for  a  ready  market  and  high  prices.  The  mul- 
tiplication of  useful  crafts  and  avocations  contributes  to  the  profit 
of  each,  as  well  as  to  national  wealth.  A  home  market  is  more 
steady  and  more  secure.  The  money  paid  for  products  of  do- 
mestic manufacture,  instead  of  going  abroad,  and  thus  impoverish- 
ing the  nation,  stays  at  home  and  enriches  it.  All  know  how  the 
country  has  prospered  under  the  tariff  of  1S42.  The  farmer,  who 
sold  his  wool  in  1843  for  $125,  sells  the  same  quantity  in  1844 
for  $175.  The  protection  extended  by  the  tariff  to  the  products 
of  agriculture,  also  contributes  to  the  general  result. 

But  for  protection  to  manufactures  and  the  mechanic  arts,  the 
numerous  classes  employed  in  them  and  by  them,  would  naturally, 
at  least  a  large  portion  of  them,  be  devoted  to  agriculture,  and  thus 
produce  a  surplus  to  glut  the  market,  and  reduce  the  prices  to 
almost  nothing.  Indeed,  it  needs  but  little  reflection  to  see,  that  a 
purely  agricultural  community,  might  soon  find  themselves  in  the 
condition  of  the  aboriginal  tribes  of  the  American  continent,  whose 
squaws  could  raise  corn  enough  for  the  wigwams. 

Mr.  Everett,  American  minister  to  England,  stated,  in  a  speech 
at  an  agricultural  meeting,  at  Derby,  in  July,  1843,  Earl  Spencer 
in  the  chair,  that,  although  the  commerce  between  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States  was  twice  as  great  as  between  England  and 
any  other  country,  yet  the  whole  of  the  products,  passing  to  and 
fro,  was  not  worth  so  much  as  the  oats  and  beans  raised  in  Great 
Britain,  as  proved  by  their  agricultural  statistics,  and  that  the  en- 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  317 

tire  value  of  the  products  employing  British  navigation  all  the 
world  over,  was  not  equal  to  the  grass  grown  in  Great  Britain. 
Such  is  the  importance  of  agriculture  to  every  nation,  and  if  its 
government  is  not  wise  and  patriotic  enough  to  take  care  of  it,  this 
vast  interest  will  be  sacrificed. 

Notwithstanding  that  attempts   have  been   made  to  impair  the 
force  of  the  rule,  commonly  called  the  balance  of  trade,  by 
stigmatizing  it  as  a  "  detected  fallacy,"  for  the  sake  of  annihilating 
the  arithmetical  certainty  which  it  affords  as  a  species  of  evidence 
in  determining  the  gains  and  losses  of  a  nation  in  its  foreign  trade, 
it  is  a  means  of  information  on  this  subject  which,  on  account  of 
its  importance  and  the  unerring  result  to  which  it  leads,  can  not  be 
surrendered.     All  the  uncertainty  arising  from  the  application  of 
this  rule,  results  from  failing  to  collect  and  put  forward  the  facts 
which  constitute  the  rule.     It  certainly  would  not  be  infallible  to 
say,  that  a  nation  which  has  sold  the  value  of  one  hundred  mil- 
lions, and  bought  the  value  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  millions,  is 
therefore    twenty  millions  minus,  without    considering    the  place 
where  and  rule  by  which  the  values  were  ascertained,  to  what  party 
or  parties  the  profits  of  the  trade  belonged.     But  there  can  be  no 
possibility  of  mistake  when  the  commercial   exchanges  against  a 
nation  are  making  perpetual  drafts  on  its  money,  instead  of  paying 
its  debts  by  exports  of  other  commodities,  and  when  it  finds  itself 
growing  poorer  and  poorer  in  pocket,  till,  like  an  unwise  spend- 
thrift, it  has  parted  with  all  its  cash  ;  or  is  obliged  to  turn  bankrupt 
or  repudiate,  because  it  can  not  pay.     It  is  well  known  there  have 
been  times  of  commercial  distress  in  the  United  States — want  of 
money,  loss  of  credit,  and  general  embarrassment  in  all  kinds  of 
business — and  it  is  found,  that  these  times  have  always  followed 
immediately  after  large  balances  of  trade  have  fallen  against  the 
nation  by  its  having  bought  more  than  it  had  sold.     It  is  also  found, 
that  this  excess  of  buying  over  the  amount  of  selling,  has  always 
prevailed  most  when  the  protective  policy  was  least  stringent,  and 
that  the  nation  has  uniformly  been  most  prosperous  when  the  tariff 
has  been  strongest,  or  highest.     The  balance  of  trade,  in  favor  of 
a  nation,  is  its  income  ;  the  balance  against  it,  is  its  loss,  and  will 
be  its  ruin,  if  continued ;  the  same  as  it  is  with  a  private  individ- 
ual.    The  man  that  trades  with  a  profit,  grows  rich  ;  and  it  is  only 
another  truism  to  say,  that  he  who  trades  with  loss,  grows  poor. 
The  "  detected  fallacy"  is  the  doctrine  that  questions  these  self- 


318  POLITICAL    ECONOMY    AS    IT    RESPECTS 

evident  truths — not  less  true  in  application  to  a  nation,  than  to  a 
private  man. 

From  the  peace  of  17S3  to  the  adoption  of  the  federal  consti- 
tution in  17S9,  there  were  no  powers  under  the  confederation  of 
the  states  to  establish  a  protective  policy,  and  the  consequence 
was,  that  Great  Britain  reaped  nearly  the  same  advantages  on  the 
basis  of  free  trade  with  the  states  after  they  had  acquired  their  in- 
dependence, as  before  when  they  were  subject  colonies,  and  the 
country  was  involved  in  the  greatest  commercial  distress  and  em- 
barrassment. All  its  money  was  drawn  off  to  pay  for  British  and 
other  foreign  products,  and  the  constitution  was  formed  to  confer 
powers  of  protection  against  these  evils. 

It  is  stated  in  Pitkin's  Statistical  View,  that  the  imports  of  this 
country  from  Great  Britain,  for  the  first  year  after  the  peace  of 
1783,  were  six  to  one  of  its  exports  to  that  empire;  and  that  the 
annual  average  proportion  of  imports  to  exports,  from  1783  to 
1790,  was  as  three  of  the  former  to  07ie  of  the  latter.  It  is  true, 
indeed,  that  these  facts  do  not  determine  the  balance  of  trade  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  all  the  foreign  world  ;  but  they  are  a 
very  instructive  element  in  the  calculation. 

Though  the  protection  at  first  afforded  to  manufactures  in  the 
United  States  was  but  slender,  the  period  from  1790  to  1807,  was 
one  of  comparative  prosperity,  resulting  chiefly  from  the  neutral 
position  of  the  country  as  a  commercial  nation,  during  the  wars 
which  agitated  Europe,  and  opened  a  rich  harvest  of  trade  with 
the  belligerents.  From  1807  to  1815,  the  successive  events  of 
non-importation,  non-intercourse,  embargo,  and  war,  were  in  them- 
selves measures  of  protection  to  manufactures,  though  occasions 
of  great  commercial  distress  and  sacrifice.  From  the  peace  of 
Ghent  till  the  operation  of  the  tariff  of  1816,  the  country  was 
brought  greatly  in  debt  by  the  flood  of  importations  from  Great 
Britain  and  other  parts,  which  exceeded  the  exports  for  this  short 
period,  about  a  year  and  a  half,  sixty-one  millions  of  dollars  ! 
The  inadequate  protection  of  the  tariff  of  1816  was  limited  to 
three  years,  and  without  experiencing  any  very  essential  relief,  the 
country  was  again  plunged  into  the  greatest  distress  by  excessive 
importations,  and  the  accumulation  of  balances  of  trade  against  it, 
till  the  tariff  of  1824  came  in  to  change  the  scene,  at  which  time, 
and  from  which  as  a  cause,  commenced,  as  noticed  by  Mr.  Clay 
in  an  extract  from  one  of  his  speeches  before  given,  a  protracted 
period  of  great  commercial  prosperity,  during  which  the  entire 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  319 

national  debt  was  extinguished,- and  a  corresponding  private  thrift 
was  realized.  The  great  commercial  revulsion  of  1836-'37, 
which  finally  resulted  in  the  great  political  revolution  of  1S40,  was 
the  effect  of  two  causes  :  first,  the  reduction  of  duties  by  the  com- 
promise act,  which  was  stripped  of  the  land  bill,  and  administered 
in  bad  faith.  But  next,  and  more  especially,  a  series  of  fitfid  and 
fatal  experiments,  made  by  General  Jackson  during  his  adminis- 
tration, on  the  commercial  habits  of  the  nation,  by  revolutionizing 
the  currency  system,  discouraging  at  one  time  and  tempting  at 
another  the  enterprises  of  the  people  and  of  the  states,  nothing 
fixed,  everything  changing.  The  order  to  loan  the  public  deposites 
had  no  sooner  seduced  the  people  into  extravagant  speculations, 
and  the  merchants  into  excessive  and  ruinous  importations,  than 
the  specie  circular  called  the  money  from  the  east  where  it  was 
wanted  to  meet  those  engagements,  to  the  west  where  it  was  not 
wanted,  and  nothing  was  left  behind  to  pay  a  balance  of  sixty  mill- 
ions of  dollars  of  an  excess  of  imports  in  one  year  over  the  ex- 
ports for  the  same  period !  Hence  the  revulsion  and  general  ruin 
of  1837. 

The  following  extract  from  a  report  on  the  commercial  inter- 
course of  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  published  by  the 
American  Institute,  New  York,  1844,  is  not  less  instructive  than 
pertinent  in  this  place  : — 

"  Without  entering  into  a  discussion  of  the  question  of  the  bal- 
ance of  trade,  we  deem  it  important  to  notice  the  operation  of  the 
system  pursued  by  the  British  government,  in  fostering  industry 
and  trade,  on  their  own  commerce,  compared  with  the  policy  of 
the  United  States.  The  total  value  of  exports  and  imports  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  for  three  successive  years  was  as  fol- 
lows : — 

Year.  Exports.  Imports. 

1839 £110,198,716 £62,004,000 

1840 116,479,679 67,432,964 

1841 116,903,668 64,377,962 


£343,582,061  £193,814,926 

Balance  in  favor  of  Great  Britain,  .£149,767,136,  or  an  annual 
average  of  .£49,822,378,  equal  to  $237,227,414.  It  is  her  com- 
mercial policy,  producing  these  yearly  balances  of  two  hundred 
and  thirty-seven  millions  of  dollars  in  her  favor,  which  sustains  her 
currency,  enables  her  to  do  as  she  wishes,  to  spend  as  she  pleases, 
to  endure  our  defalcations,  and,  from  her  surplus,  she  is  ready  to 
lend  us,  and  permit  us  to  increase  our  indebtedness  a  few  millions 


320  POLITICAL    ECONOMY    AS    IT    RESPECTS 

more.     *  Money  to  let'  is  the  fortune  of  those  only  who  so  man- 
age their  business  as  to  have  yearly  balances  in  their  favor. 

"  In  contrast,  the  amount  of  imports  into  the  United  States  from 
foreign  countries,  for  the  nine  years  from  1S31  to  1839,  inclusive, 
exceeded  the  tDtal  amount  of  exports  therefrom  by  the  sum  of 
$235,278,605   as  shown  by  the  following  statement : — 

Year.  Imports.  Exports. 

1831 $103,191,124 $81,310,583 

1832 101,029,266 87,176,913 

1833 108,118,311 90,140,433 

1834 126,521,332 104,336,973 

1835 140,895,742 121,693,577 

1836 180,980,034 ]  28,663,040 

1837 140,989,217 117,419,376 

1838 113,717,404 108,486,616 

1839 163,092,132 121,028,476 


Total $1,195,534,562 $960,255,957 

960,255,957 


Balance  against  U.  S $235,278,605 


"  It  is  not  deemed  necessary  to  search  further  than  a  knowledge 
of  these  facts,  to  account  for  the  loss  of  currency  ;  for  the  large 
amount  of  indebtedness  by  states,  corporations,  and  individuals  of 
the  United  States,  to  the  capitalists  of  Great  Britain  ;  nor  beyond 
this,  to  seek  for  a  principal  cause  for  the  insolvency  and  ruin  of 
our  banks  and  other  corporations,  as  well  as  of  individuals,  the 
depreciation  in  the  value  of  property,  the  decline  of  trade,  and 
ending  in  the  modern  doctrine  of  repudiation." 

The  following  is  from  the  same  authority  : — 

"  To  show  which  nation  has  practised  the  system  of  free  trade, 
it  is  only  necessary  to  mention,  that  while  Great  Britain  admits  7ig 
article,  except  specie,  from  tjie  United  States  free  of  duty,  we 
have,  by  our  former  tariff  regulations,  received,  duty  free,  many 
British  manufactures.  In  1840,  the  amount  of  articles  imported 
into  the  United  States  from  Great  Britain,  free  of  duty,  exclusive 
of  specie,  was  $9,875,496  ;  of  which  value  more  than  seven  mill- 
ions of  dollars  were  the  manufactures  of  the  united  kingdom. 
Our  total  exports  to  them,  the  same  year,  exclusive  of  cotton  and 
tobacco,  amounted  only  to  $3,875,551  ;  on  which  the  British  gov- 
ernment levied  a  duty  of  44.6  per  cent. 

"  The  British  tariff  fixes  so  high  a  rate  of  duty  on  many  arti- 
cles of  American  growth  and  produce,  as  to  operate  in  excluding 
them  from  the  list  of  our  exports  to  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 
Cotton,  being  indispensable  to  Great  Britain  for  the  supply  of  her 
extensive  manufactories,  and  the  employment  of  a  large  portion  of 
her  population,  is  admitted  at  a  low  rate  of  duty.  Omit  cotton, 
and  the  average  duty  on  all  other  articles  is  330  per  cent.  A 
careful  examination  of  the  rate  of  duties  payable  by  the  American 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  321 

tariff  of  1842,  on  the  different  articles  of  British  manufacture, 
forming  the  bulk  of  our  imports  from  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
results  in  an  average  rate  of  duty  of  32  per  cent.  Under  the  pro- 
hibition imposed  on  American  produce,  it  will  be  observed  that 
our  annual  average  exports  to  Great  Britain,  exclusive  of  cotton 
and  tobacco,  amount  to  $3,875,351. 

"  It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  on  the  two  great  staples  of  cotton 
and  tobacco,  which  she  receives  from  the  United  States,  Great 
Britain  levies  an  amount  of  duties  much  exceeding  the  total 
amount  of  customs  collected  on  all  articles  imported  into  the  Uni- 
ted States  from  all  foreign  countries  ;  and  also  exceeding  the  total 
annual  expenditures  of  our  government.  Thus,  the  receipts  into 
the  United  States  treasury  from  customs,  for  the  years  IS38,  1839, 
and  1840,  were  $52,796,227,  while  in  the  same  years,  the  British 
government  collected  on  cotton  and  tobacco  from  the  United 
States,  duties  to  the  amount  of  $73,638,828." 

The  honorable  P.  Triplett,  of  Kentucky,  made  a  communica- 
tion to  the  committee  on  manufactures,  in  the  27th  Congress,  from 
which  are  deduced  the  following  facts  :  that  American  products 
consumed  in  Europe,  pay  duties  on  entering  there,  equal  to  half 
of  their  entire  value  ;  whereas,  European  products  consumed  in 
the  United  States,  pay  duties  here  equal  only  to  one  ffth  of  their 
value. 

In  1841,  imports  into  the  United  States  were  $127,945,000, 
and  exports  $91,000,000,  The  duties  raised  from  these  imports 
amounted  to  $14,487,000,  being  about  111  per  cent.;  whereas, 
the  duties  which  foreign  countries  obtained  from  exports  from  the 
United  States  of  that  year,  amounted  to  $113,500,000,  or  124 
per  cent. !  The  average  of  exports  of  tobacco  from  the  United 
States  to  Europe  for  1839  and  1840,  was  $9,225,000  for  each 
year;  and  the  average  duties  imposed  for  each  year  by  European 
governments,  was  $32,463,000,  or  350  per  cent. !  The  duties 
on  American  tobacco  in  Europe  have  been  as  high  as  $35,000,000 
a  year. 

In  1750,  Joshua  Gee,  a  British  writer  of  great  clearness  and 
power,  published  a  work  entitled,  "The  Trade  and  Navigation  of 
Great  Britain  considered,"  based  upon  and  illustrating  the  propo- 
sitions : — 

"  That  the  surest  way  for  a  7iation  to  increase  in  riches,  is  to 
prevent  the  importatio7i  of  such  foreign  commodities  as  may  be  raised 
at  home  : 

"  That  this  kingdom  is  cayahle  of  raising,  within  itself  and  its 
colonies,  materials  for  cmploijing  all  our  poor  in  those  manufactures 

Vol.  II.— 21 


322  POLITICAL     ECONOMY    AS    IT    RESPECTS 

ivJiich  we  now  import  from  such  of  our  neighbors  who  refuse  the  ad- 
mission of  our  own.^^ 

The  practical  policy  of  Great  Britain,  from  that  day  to  this,  in 
regulating  her  foreign  commerce,  has  been  shaped  accordino-  to  the 
doctrines  and  precepts  of  Joshua  Gee,  while  her  most  eminent 
modern  writers  on  political  economy,  (who  are  strongly  suspected  to 
have  been  pensioned,  by  the  British  government,  to  give  lessons 
to  other  nations),  have  shown  great  zeal  for  free  trade.  Certain  it 
is,  that  the  British  government  has  followed  Joshua  Gee  as  an 
ORACLE,  and  have  never  paid  the  slightest  regard  to  their  own 
later  authorities  that  are  opposed  to  him.  The  following  extract 
from  Gee,  contains  the  gist  of  his  creed,  which,  having  been 
adopted  and  maintained,  has  made  Great  Britain  the  wealthiest 
and  most  powerful  nation  on  earth  : — 

"  To  take  the  right  way  of  Judging  of  the  increase  or  decrease 
of  the  riches  of  the  nation  by  the  trade  ive  drive  with  foreigners, 
is  to  examine  whether  we  receive  money  from  them,  or  send  them 
ours  ;  for  if  we  export  more  goods  than  ive  receive,  it  is  most  cer- 
tain that  we  shall  have  a  balance  brought  to  us  in  gold  and  silver, 
and  the  mint  will  be  at  work  to  coin  that  gold  and  silver.  But  if 
we  import  more  than  we  export,  then  it  is  as  certain  that  the  bahnice 
must  be  paid  by  gold  a?id  silver  sent  to  them  to  discharge  that  debt. 
A  nation  may  gain  vast  riches  by  trade  and  commerce,  or,  for  want 
of  a  due  regard  and  attention,  be  drained  of  them.  I  am  afraid 
the  present  commerce  of  ours  carries  out  more  riches  than  itbrino-s 
home.  Whereas  formerly  great  quantities  of  bullion  were  brought 
into  this  country  by  the  balance  of  trade,  and  coined  into  monej- ; 
the  tables  are  turned,  and  as  fast  as  we  import  bulHon  it  is  sent 
away  to  pay  our  debts.  So  many  places  endeavor  to  keep  out  our 
manufactures,  and  still  continue  to  export  their  Hnen,  hemp,  flax, 
iron,  potash,  timber,  &c.,  to  us,  which  draws  a  very  great  treasure 
annually  out  of  this  kingdom.  We  send  our  money  to  foreign  na- 
tions, and  by  employing  their  poor  instead  of  our  own,  enable  them 
to  thrust  us  out  of  our  foreign  trade;  and  by  imposing  high  duties 
on  our  manufactures,  so  to  clog  the  importation  of  them,  that  it 
amounts  to  a  prohibition." 

From  that  day,  and  according  to  this  rule  of  Joshua  Gee,  it 
seems  always  to  have  been  the  policy  of  Great  Britain  so  to  adjust 
her  tariff,  as  to  secure  a  large  excess  of  exports  over  imports ;  in 
other  words,  a  large  balance  of  trade  in  her  favor.  In  the  years 
above  cited,  the  difference  is  nearly  half.  No  nation  can  escape 
commercial  revulsions  that  does  not  base  its  foreign  commercial 
policy  on  this  principle.     Every  season  of  commercial  distress  in 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  323 

the  United  States — they  have  been  frequent  and  calamitous — has 
been  occasioned  by  neglecting  this  duty  ;  in  other  words,  by  fail- 
ing to  establish  and  maintain  an  adequate  and  uniform  protective 
policy.  The  aggregate  of  balances  of  trade  against  the  United 
States,  as  shown  by  public  documents,  beginning  with  1790,  and 
ending  with  1840,  is  $900,000,000  ! 

From  the  establishment  of  American  independence  (political — • 
there  has  been  little  other)  to  the  tariff  of  1842,  there  has  been  a 
balance  of  trade  in  favor  of  the  United  States  of  only  six  years, 
in  trifling  amounts,  except  in  1840,  it  was  twenty-four  millions, 
simply  because  the  country  had  not  credit  enough  to  buy — in  one 
respect  a  fortunate  necessity,  as  the  half  of  this  balance  went  to 
pay  debts,  and  the  other  half  to  pay  interest. 

Some  deductions  ought  no  doubt  to  be  made  from  the  above 
nine  hundred  millions,  in  consideration  of  the  facts,  that  the  valu- 
ations of  exports  and  imports  have  not  been  made  by  the  same 
rule,  and  that  there  is  no  allowance  for  the  profits  of  the  trade. 
But  after  this  account  shall  have  been  fairly  adjusted,  the  balance 
must  still  be  amazing  !  Can  it,  then,  be  a  subject  of  wonder,  that 
the  people  of  the  United  States  have  had  to  struggle  through  so 
many,  and  such  protracted  periods  of  commercial  disaster,  in- 
volving the  whole  country  in  distress,  and  countless  individuals  in 
private  ruin  ?  Nothing  but  the  inexhaustible  wealth  of  the  coun- 
try's physical  resources,  and  the  indomitable  enterprise  of  its  pop- 
ulation, could  have  carried  the  nation  through  such  trials,  and  en- 
abled it  to  surmount  such  difficulties. 

By  the  tariff  of  1842,  the  balance  of  trade  is  getting  to  be  on 
the  right  side,  though  not  much  to  boast  of.  It  appears  from  offi- 
cial documents,  that  the  balance  in  favor  of  the  United  States  for 
tlie  year  ending  June  30,  1843,  was  $19,592,681  ;  and  that  for 
the  year  ending  .June  30th,  1844,  was  $2,765,011. 

The  restoration  of  confidence  consequent  upon  the  passage  of 
the  tariff  of  1842,  brought  out  capital  that  had  lain  dormant; 
it  was  diffused  into  all  branches  of  trade,  manufacturing,  &c;  its 
stimulating  effect  was  felt  in  every  direction:  but,  above  all,  it  had 
the  tendency  to  bring  into  the  country  a  large  amount  of  foreign 
coin — "a  consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished."  The  secretary 
of  the  treasury  reported,  on  the  2Sth  April,  1844,  that  for  ni?}c 
months  ending  30th  June,  1843,  the  import  of  coin  was  $22,320,335 
Export,  in  the  same  time,  _         _         _         -  127,429 

$22,192,906 


324  POLITICAL    ECONOMY    AS    IT    RESPECTS 

Showing  a  gain  to  this  country,  in  the  short  period  of  nine  months, 
of  upward  of  twenty  millions  of  dollars.  At  first  its  genial  effect 
was  to  replenish  the  vaults  of  the  banks  on  the  seaboard  ;  but  ulti- 
mately the  coin  reached  all  parts  of  the  country. 

If  it  be  asked,  how,  then,  has  the  nation  grown  so  wealthy, 
under  the  weight  of  such  former  balances  against  it,  the  answer  is, 
that  the  wealth  consists  in  improvements,  which,  but  for  those  un- 
favorable balances  would  have  been  indefinitely,  no  one  can  tell  how 
much,  greater.  The  United  States  are  a  well-stocked  estate,  but 
always  in  a  state  of  commercial  embarrassment,  for  goino-  abroad 
to  buy,  in  other  words,  to  borrow,  that  which  might  and  should  be 
made  at  home.  The  annual  income  of  England,  in  the  shape  of 
balance  of  trade,  is  rarely  if  ever  less,  under  her  present  system  of 
policy,  than  two  hundred  millions  of  dollars.  The  American 
tariff  of  1842  seems  to  promise  a  bare  rescue  from  former  ruinous 
losses. 

A  variety  of  facts  and  considerations  belonging  to  this  argument, 
can  only  be  succinctly  stated  here.  The  importance  of  the  home 
trade  of  the  country  is  seldom  considered.  It  appears  by  a  report 
to  the  senate  of  the  United  States,  document  340,  second  session, 
twenty-seventh  Congress,  that  the  aggregate  value  of  the  annual 
products  of  the  United  States  is  $2,000,000,000,  which  is  annu- 
ally increasing.  Deducting  the  exports  of  foreign  products  from 
the  average  exports  of  the  country,  much  less  than  one  hundred 
millions  of  these  two  thousand  millions  goes  into  foreign  trade.  A 
very  large  portion  of  the  remainder  is  constantly  going  the  active 
rounds  of  the  home  trade.  One  can  hardly  conceive  of  the  mao-- 
nitude  and  importance  of  this  business.  It  has  been  estimated, 
that  the  annual  exchanges  negotiated  in  the  setdement  of  accounts 
in  the  home  trade  of  the  United  States,  amount  to  four  hundred 
millions  of  dollars. 

The  importance  of  counteracting  that  overwhelming  one  or  two 
hundred  million  man-power  of  British  machinery,  requiring  only 
five  hundred  thousand  operatives,  sufficient  to  supply  the  whole 
world  with  manufactures,  which  aims  at  this  monopoly,  and  which 
has  had  such  a  prodigious  influence  in  checking  the  growth  of 
manufactures  in  the  United  States,  can  not  fail  to  strike  the  mind 
of  every  American  statesman  and  patriot. 

The  effects  of  domestic  manufactures  on  the  capital  of  labor, 
are  very  striking. 

It  is  proved  in   '' Facts  for  a  Laboring  Man,''  published  in 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  325 

1840,  that  a  family  of  seven  persons,  whose  enth-e  wages  in  1816, 
in  a  cotton  factory,  were  only  S180  a  year,  could  get  in  1830,  in 
consequence  of  the  increase  of  wages,  $658  a  year,  while  the 
prices  of  their  products  had  fallen  about  two  thirds. 

The  town  of  Lowell,  in  Massachusetts,  which  has  risen  from 
nothing  in  twenty  years,  to  a  population  of  more  than  twenty  thou- 
sand, has  between  eleven  and  twelve  millions  of  dollars  vested  in 
her  manufactories,  employs  upward  oi  nine  thoiisand  laborers,  male 
and  female,  pays  for  their  work  annually  SI, 800, 000,  about  fifty 
per  cent,  of  which,  on  the  average,  or  $900,000,  they  can  save, 
or  lay  by,  after  paying  their  board  and  necessary  expenses.  Their 
savings  support  a  savings  bank  in  the  place,  where  deposites  are 
constantly  being  made.  Some  of  them,  after  having  laid  up  a  sat- 
isfactory sum,  go  home  with  means  to  settle  down  for  life,  while 
others  vest  their  savings  in  the  manufactories,  and  become  stock- 
holders and  corporators — managers  of  their  own  stock,  and  pre- 
siding over  themselves  as  laborers,  gradually  accumulating  their 
interest  in  these  companies.  In  one  manufactory  alone,  $100,000 
of  stock  is  owned  by  those  who  work  in  the  factories  for  wages ; 
in  another*  $60,000;  and  so  on.  Factory  girls,  and  women  who 
live  by  their  needles,  are  often  stockholders  in  these  and  other  in- 
stitutions. It  will  be  observed,  that  in  all  these  cases,  the  capital 
of  labor  creates  the  moneyed  capital  thus  or  otherwise  vested,  and 
that  in  the  case  of  a  laborer  at  Lowell,  who  receives  in  wages 
$200  a  year — that  is  the  average — and  lays  up  one  hundred  dol- 
lars, the  profits  of  labor  are  ten  to  one  of  the  income  of  moneyed 
capital  at  five  per  cent.  In  other  words,  the  profits  of  labor  in 
these  cases  ^xe  fifty  per  cent,  on  the  investment  of  a  labor  capital 
of  $200,  in  the  case  of  each  laborer.  This,  of  course,  must  neces- 
sarily wield  its  sustaining  and  elevating  influence  on  the  prices  of 
labor  throughout  the  country,  which  is  dotted  with  establishments 
of  this  kind. 

Fas  est  ah  hostihiis  doceri.  It  is  right  to  gain  instruction  from 
enemies.  For  example:  Captain  Marryat  states,  in  his  work  on 
America,  that  the  supply  of  British  goods  of  all  kinds,  is  more 
abundant  in  the  remotest  frontier  towns  of  the  United  States, 
where  the  stumps  of  the  primitive  forests  are  yet  standing  in  the 
streets  and  cellars,  than  in  the  market-towns  of  England. 

By  a  recent  report  of  a  committee  of  the  British  house  of  com- 
mons, it  appears,  that  Prussia  consumes  annually  of  British  man- 
ufactures to  the  amount  of  7  cents  for  each  individual  of  her  pop- 


336  POLITICAL    ECONOMY    AS    IT    KESPECTS 

ulation;  Russia  to  the  amount  of  16  cents  for  each  individual; 
Norway  17  cents;  France  20  cents;  and  the  United  States  to  the 
amount  of  402  cents  for  each  individual  of  their  population ;  and 
yet  there  is  scarcely  one  of  these  articles  which  could  not  be  pro- 
duced at  home  at  a  lower  price  and  of  a  better  quahty. 

A  farmer  in  Illinois  wrote  a  letter  to  his  friend  in  the  east,  in 
1S42,  complaining  that  he  could  get  only  31  cents  a  bushel  for  his 
wheat,  25  cents  for  beans,  10  cents  for  corn,  1^  cents  a  pound  for 
beef  and  pork,  2^  cents  a  pound  for  tobacco,  &c.,  stating  that  he  had 
to  pdiy  Jive  dollars,  or  which  is  the  same  thing,  16  bushels  of  wheat, 
or  20  bushels  of  beans,  or  26  bushels  of  corn,  or  300  lbs.  of  pork 
or  beef,  or  200  lbs.  of  tobacco,  pe/-  yard  of  British  broadcloth  to 
make  him  a  coat !  The  cost  of  this  yard  of  cloth  at  the  manu- 
factories in  England,  was  probably  about  three  dollars,  three  bush- 
els of  wheat,  as  sold  in  the  market  there.  That  is,  the  producer 
in  England  received  for  the  cloth  one  eighth  of  what  was  charged 
to  the  farmer  in  Illinois.  Who  got  the  difference?  If  the  man- 
ufacturer had  been  in  Illinois,  or  anywhere  in  this  country,  the 
farmer  might  have  got  his  yard  of  cloth  by  three  bushels  of  wheat, 
instead  of  sixteen,  and  the  manufacturer  would  have  m'ade  a  mar- 
ket for  the  farmer's  beans,  corn,  pork,  beef,  »&c.,  at  a  good  price. 

It  appears  from  a  report  of  the  Hon.  J.  P.  Kennedy,  of  the 
twenty-seventh  Congress,  from  the  committee  on  commerce,  that, 
from  1820  to  1830,  the  aggregate  imports  of  the  United  States 
amounted  to  $798,500,000,  and  the  amount  retained  for  domestic 
consumption  to  $568,900,000;  and  that,  from  1830  to  1840,  the 
imports  were  $1,302,500,000,  and  the  amount  retained  for  domestic 
consumption,  was  $1,103,100,000.  Herein  is  revealed  a  great  se- 
cret: As  the  effect  of  the  protective  policy  established  in  1824, 
and  continued  for  a  number  of  years,  the  nation  paid  off  a  debt  of 
one  hundred  millions.  Chiefly  in  the  last  half  of  the  period  from 
1830  to  1840,  a  foreign  debt  of  two  hundred  millions  was  con- 
tracted. It  is  accounted  for  in  the  abovecited  imports  for  that 
period.  About  one  hundred  millions  of  the  state  debts  were  made 
in  1835  and  1836,  and  nearly  all  of  them  got  into  the  foreign 
market  about  this  time  to  settle  balances  for  excessive  importations. 

But  the  NECESSITY  of  a  protective  policy  in  the  United  States 
against  the  European  world,  arises  chiefly  from  the  different 
values  of  capital  and  labor  in  these  two  quarters  of  the  globe;  and 
it  will  be  found,  that  this  necessity  can  never  cease,  while  freedom 
is  maintained  against  despotism. 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  327 

The  value  of  capital  (money)  is  determined  by  the  interest  it 
can  obtain  in  the  market ;  and  by  this  rule  the  average  value  of 
capital  in  Europe  is  at  least  one  third  less  than  the  average  value 
of  American  capital,  as  settled  by  experience.  The  average  price 
of  European  labor,  as  determined  by  the  best  authorities,  is  at  least 
tivo  thirds,  and  might  perhaps  be  put  down  at  three  foiirtlis  less, 
than  the  average  price  of  American  labor.  Say,  two  thirds.  In 
other  words,  the  value  of  American  capital  is  as  3  to  2,  and  of 
American  labor  as  3  to  1,  of  European  capital  and  labor.  This 
may  be  assumed  as  settled. 

This  is  a  difference  between  a  free  country  and  countries  not 
free.  It  is  not  an  accident — a  transient  result — but  the  iiermanent 
effect  of  a  permanent  and  immutable  cause.  In  the  United  States, 
the  value  of  capital  and  the  price  of  labor  are  not  forced  and  ficti- 
tious, hut  they  are  the  jyrerogalive  of  freedom.  In  the  case  of  Eu- 
rope, the  laborers  are  not  a  party  in  arranging  the  price  of  their 
task.  They  have  no  choice.  It  is  forced.  Consequently,  the 
capital  that  is  thus  wrung  from  involuntary  service,  at  such  a  price, 
can  be  afforded  at  less  interest;  and  considering  how  it  is  acquired, 
the  price  of  European  capital  is  in  fact  higher  than  American  cap 
ital,  as  compared  with  the  price  of  labor  there. 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  other  things  being  equal,  that  the  ad- 
vantage which  European  capital  and  labor,  as  producing  powers, 
have  over  American  capital  and  labor,  acting  in  the  same  capacity, 
in  open  and  free  trade,  is  equal  to  the  difference  in  their  relative 
values,  which  may  be  assumed  as  two  to  one,  if  labor  be  regarded 
an  equal  power  with  the  capital  that  employs  it.  But  other  things 
are  not  equal,  and  the  difference  is  in  favor  of  Europeans.  For 
example,  laborers  in  Europe  work  from  12  to  18  hours  a  day,  av- 
eraging say  15  hours,  and  American  laborers  never  over  10  hours, 
making  a  difference  in  this  particular  of  one  third.  There  are 
other  points  of  difference,  all  on  the  same  side  ;  but  this  is  enough 
to  show  that  the  difference  is  not  rated  too  high,  in  allowing  Euro- 
pean capital  and  labor  to  be  100  per  cent  more  powerful,  as  pro- 
ducers, in  opposition  to  American  capital  and  labor.  The  poin 
is  this :  That  American  capital  and  labor,  each  at  a  cost  of  100 
can  not  compete  in  the  same  market  and  'on  the  same  terms  with 
European  capital,  costing  only  67,  and  European  labor,  costing 
only  33. 

The  question,  then — the  great,  practical,  momentous  question — 
is,  shall  European  capital  and  labor,  in  a  field  of  open  and  free 


328  POLITICAL    ECONOMY    AS    IT    RESPECTS 

trade,  be  permitted  to  bring  American  capital  and  labor,  that  is, 
American  society,  down  to  the  same  level  ?  Or  shall  American 
society,  by  the  American  government,  j^rotect  American  capital  and 
labor,  and  maintain  the  position  to  which  the  cost  of  American  free- 
dom has  elevated  them  ? 

The  great  battle  of  the  world  is  between  freedom  and  despotism  ; 
and  more  than  in  anything,  or  all  things  else,  the  form  under  which 
that  contest  is  now  carried  on,  is  between  European  capital  and 
labor  on  one  side,  and  American  capital  and  labor  on  the  other. 
On  this  pivot  turns  the  destiny  of  nations.  Sustain  the  position 
of  American  capital  and  labor,  that  every  man  may  be  secure  of 
the  fair  reward  of  his  exertions,  however  humble  his  birth  and  call- 
ing, and  freedom  will  prevail  all  the  world  over.  The  American 
people,  vfiited  and  resolved  in  this  great  emprise,  can  beat  the  world 
— the  xfltole  world — and  crumble  into  dust  the  bulwarks  of  despotic 
sway.  But,  let  European  capital  and  labor  prevail  against  Amer- 
ican capital  and  labor,  for  want  of  protection  to  the  latter,  and  there 
is  an  end  of  freedom,  till  another  cycle  of  ages,  with  its  sad  round 
of  experience,  shall  burst  the  chains  again,  and  they  who  succeed 
shall  better  appreciate  their  duty  and  their  chances. 

The  batde  for  American  freedom  was  only  begun  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  American  independence.  The  commercial  systems 
of  Europe  are  more  to  be  feared  than  all  the  power  of  European 
arras.  A  perpetual  war  would  be  less  expensive  and  less  perilous 
than  the  effects  of  this  occult,  silent,  insinuating,  all-pervading 
power,  if  unresisted. 

The  laissez-faire,  or  let-alone  principle,  which  lies  at  the  bottom 
and  is  the  soul  of  free-trade  philosophy,  may  be  romantic  to  dream 
on  ;  but  to  act  on  and  live  by,  it  is  quite  another  thing.  Though 
one  nation  adopts  it,  another  will  not.  The  latter,  of  course,  can 
and  will  prey  on  the  former.  One  throws  away  its  shield,  and 
the  other  takes  advantage  of  it.  An  opponent  is  free  to  strike, 
and  SURE  to  hit.  Reduced  to  its  naked  form,  it  is,  laws  for 
the  benefit  of  one  party,  and  that  iKirty  make  them  !  It  is  pre- 
cisely the  same  principle  in  common  society,  as  in  the  society 
of  nations.  Its  most  undisguised  form,  in  which  it  stands  forth 
in  its  true  light,  is,  let  every  second  man  do  as  he  ]jlcases.  It  will 
then  be  found,  that  all  men  are  not  equal,  and  that  one  is  able  to 
knock  down  another,  and  rob  him.  This  is  free  trade  !  On 
the  ground  of  free  trade,  European  capital  and  labor,  which  cost 
fifty  cents,  as  seen  above,  will  knock  down  and  rob  American  cap- 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  329 

ital  and  labor,  which  cost  one  hundred  cents.  It  is  as  certain  to 
follow,  as  that  the  sun  will  rise  in  the  east  and  set  in  the  west  to- 
morrow. 

Some  are  deceived  in  supposing,  that,  whejein  the  British  par- 
liament have  reduced  the  scale  of  duties,  they  are  departing  from 
the  protective  policy.  It  was  found,  that  the  growth  of  American 
cotton  manufactures  had  not  only  enabled  them  to  rival,  but  to  un- 
dersell the  British  manufacturers,  in  the  markets  of  the  world.  The 
British  parliament,  therefore,  was  compelled  to  extend  protection 
to  their  own  manufactures,  by  taking  the  duties  off  from  cotton, 
to  enable  them  to  compete  with  Americans.  The  ink  of  the 
"  Southern  Planter,"  quoted  in  chapter  x.,  was  scarcely  dry,  after 
writing,  "  the  hulf-ijenny-a-poimd  duty  [on  cotton]  now  levied  in 
England,  will  have  to  give  way  to  insure  her  success"  before  it 
was  done  !  So  it  is  in  all  other  cases  :  The  British  parliament 
never  reduces  the  rate  of  duties,  but  to  secure  a  greater  amount  of 
protection.  The  very  principle  on  which  free  trade  is  advocated 
in  England,  is  to  increase  protection  ;  and  if  she  had  been  willing 
to  sacrifice  the  great  interests  protected  by  her  corn  laws,  an  unre- 
stricted trade  with  all  the  world,  begun  in  season,  would  probably 
have  been  her  best  policy.  In  that  case,  her  position,  in  the 
perfection  of  her  manufacturing  arts,  in  her  vast  machinery,  and 
in  her  cheap  capital  and  labor,  would  have  put  her  far  ahead  of  the 
rest  of  the  world,  and  would  probably  have  enabled  her  for  ever 
to  maintain  it.  But  this  policy  would  have  been  based  on  the 
principle  of  protection,  and  only  proves  that  all  other  nations  would 
have  been  crippled  by  this  so-called  free  trade  of  Great  Britain. 
It  would  be  equally  true  to  say,  that  a  weak  man  can  contend  with 
a  strong  man,  with  hope  of  success. 

It  is  imagined  by  some,  that  the  protective  policy  diminishes 
foreign  commerce.  Experience,  however,  does  not  justify  this 
apprehension.  But,  suppose  it  does.  It  augments  in  an  equal  or 
greater  proportion  a  far  more  profitable  home  trade.  The  things 
wanted,  being  manufactured  at  home,  the  three,  sometimes  four, 
not  unfrequently  five  and  more  values  added  to  the  raw  material, 
in  the  process  of  manufacture,  are  retained,  instead  of  going  abroad, 
besides  that  it  gives  a  more  profitable  employment  and  a  better 
subsistence  to  a  portion  of  the  American  people,  enhancing  the 
wealth  of  all  in  a  general  distribution  of  benefits.  But  all  experi- 
ence teaches,  that  the  more  a  nation  produces,  and  the  greater  the 
variety  of  its  products,  so  much  the  more  extended,  and  so  much 


330  POLITICAL    ECONOMY    AS    IT    RESPECTS 

the  more  active,  will  be  its  foreign  trade.  Rich  at  home,  it  can 
afford  to  buy  abroad,  and  will  make  corresponding  exchanges. 

Of  all  reasons  that  can  be  urged  in  favor  of  a  protective  policy, 
no  one  perhaps  can  be  named  of  greater  cogency,  than  its  necessi- 
ty for  a  good  and  adequate  currency.  The  currency  of  the  coun- 
tiy — a  sound  currency — does  not  depend  on  banking,  or  the  modes 
of  banking,  or  whether  banking  be  done  by  a  national  institution, 
or  by  state  corporations,  or  by  both,  or  by  neither,  though  doubt- 
less there  is  a  choice  in  modes — a  better  way.  There  can  be 
no  sound  currency,  where  there  is  no  money  ;  and  there  never 
can  be  money  enough  for  the  currency  of  a  country  which  is  con- 
stantly sending  off  more  than  it  brings  back — unless  one  of  its 
products  be  money,  as  has  been  the  case  with  Mexico,  and  some 
of  the  South  American  states.  In  that  case,  money  is  not  the 
medium,  but  an  article,  of  trade.  But  the  United  States  do  not 
produce  money  in  any  quantity  sufficient  to  rely  upon,  either  as  an 
article,  or  basis,  or  medium  of  trade.  They  are  obliged,  therefore, 
to  depend  on  getting  and  keeping  money  enough  hj  trade,  to  an- 
swer the  purposes  of  a  currency. 

A  man  may  have  a  very  large  estate,  well  stocked,  well  worked, 
and  be  making  extensive  improvements  ;  but  if  he  buys  more  than 
he  sells,  his  money,  or  active  capital,  is  all  the  while  growing  less; 
and  unless  he  has  a  great  deal  of  it,  he  will  soon  find  himself  em- 
barrassed. When  this  state  of  things  arrives,  he  is  precisely  in 
the  condition  of  a  nation  that  has  been  guilty  of  the  same  improvi- 
dence. Without  money,  neither  he,  nor  a  nation,  can  do  business 
to  advantage.  An  income  is  as  necessary  to  a  nation,  as  to  a 
private  individual ;  and  the  income  of  a  nation  is  the  money  it  gets 
by  selling  more  than  it  buys.  While  this  is  the  case,  it  is  impos- 
sible that  the  currency  of  a  nation  should  be  bad  or  inadequate.  A 
bank  here,  and  a  bank  there,  may  fail,  as  private  individuals  do, 
and  for  like  reasons  of  mismanagement,  or  misfortune  ;  but  there 
can  be  no  such  thing  as  a  general  bank  suspension,  where  the  pub- 
lic policy  is  such  as  to  secure  the  coming  in  of  more  money  than 
goes  out ;  or,  when  there  is  enough  in,  to  prevent  more  going  out 
than  comes  in.  These  results,  in  one  case  or  the  other,  are  al- 
ways contingent  on  the  sufficiency  or  insufficiency  of  the  protective 
policy. 

The  intimate  and  indissoluble  relation  of  the  protective  policy 
to  the  currency  of  a  country,  commends  it,  therefore,  as  a  point 
for  consideration  too  important  to  be  overlooked.     No  man  can 


THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY.  331 

trade  safely,  and  with  a  warrant  of  prosperity,  except  on  the  basis 
of  a  credit  which  solid  capital  affords,  and  with  such  means  as  that 
credit  will  constantly  supply  him.  The  moment  his  means,  and 
with  his  means,  his  credit,  fail,  he  is  stopped.  There  is  no  use  in 
his  trying  to  go  on  ;  it  is  impossible,  except  by  a  transient  career 
of  fraud,  which  only  makes  it  worse  when  he  is  found  out. 

It  is  precisely  the  same  with  a  nation  in  its  trade  with  the  rest 
of  the  world.     When,  for  the  lack  of  an  adequate  protective  policy 
— which  is  the  same  thing  as  the  improvidence  of  a  spendthrift — it 
is  habitually  buying  more  than  it  sells,  and  its  money  goes  off  to 
settle  balances,  its  means  of  trade,  domestic  as  well  as  foreign,  are 
all  the  while  growing  less  and  less,  and  without  a  change,  a  reform, 
that  nation  must  fail.     Its  insolvency  is  as  inevitable,  as  that  of  an 
improvident  individual,  who  conducts  business  on  the  same  prin- 
ciple.    The  way  in  which  the  insolvency  of  a  commercial  nation 
shows  itself,  is,  first,  by  a  scarcity  of  money,  which  everybody 
feels ;  as  a  consequence,  a  general  contraction  in  all  monetary  op- 
erations, by  which  business  is  carried  on,  necessarily  drawing  along 
with   it   commercial  inactivity,  dulness  ;    diffidence   in  all  credit 
transactions  ;  and  at  last,  if  no  relief  comes,  the  banks  suspend. 
This  last  act  is  the  consummation  of  a  nation's  commercial  insol- 
vency.    The  banks,  at  the  moment,  and  during  the  whole  time  of 
suspension,  may  be  sound,  as  the  specie  in  their  vaults  is  not  the 
exponent  of  their  capital.     Being  allowed  by  their  charters  to  issue 
more  paper  than  they  have  specie,  the  heavy  commercial  exchanges 
against  the  country  operate  directly  on  their  vaults,  to  draw  off  the 
specie  into  foreign  parts,  and  they  are  compelled  to  suspend,  or 
part  with  the  last  cent.     Even  then  they  must  suspend,  so  long  as 
they  have  more  paper  out,  than  specie  in.     It  is  the  unfavorable 
state  of  foreign  exchanges,  the  large  commercial  balances  against 
the  country,  which  occasion  a  general  bank  suspension.     It  is  be- 
cause there  is  not  money  enough  in  the  country  to  pay  its  debts  ; 
and  like  a  merchant,  who  finds  himself  in  a  like  condition,  to  avoid 
complete  and  irretrievable  ruin,  that  would  incapacitate  the  coun- 
try for  all  trade,  the  banks  stop  payment,  lo  the  injury  of  their  own 
credit,  and  the  credit  of  the  country.     They  can  not  help  it.     They 
are  forced  into  it  by  the  effect  of  the  policy  of  the  government, 
which  tempts  the  people  to  buy  more  than  they  sell,  and  the  nation 
to  do  the  same,  till,  after  repeated  and  long-continued  drafts  on  the 
money  of  the  country,  the  pressure  begins  to  be  felt,  and  before 
the  remedy  can  be  applied — for  it  is  too  late  when  the  effects  of 


332  THE    PROTECTIVE    POLICY. 

such  improvidence  have  already  come — the  whole  community  is 
involved  in  the  general  calamity.  It  is  only  for  the  want  of  an 
adequate  protective  policy.  So  long  as  an  industrious  and  pro- 
ducing nation  does  not  buy  more  than  it  sells,  it  is  impossible  it 
should  be  involved  in  general  commercial  distress — absolutely  im- 
possible in  the  nature  of  things.  A  nation  of  such  resources  and 
wealth  as  the  United  States,  with  such  an  enterprising  population, 
can  bear  a  great  deal  of  loss  in  its  foreign  trade,  and  yet  prosper. 
Think  of  nine  hundred  millions  of  loss  in  fifty  years,  as  appears 
from  public  documents — or  reduce  it  even  to  five  hundred  millions, 
for  the  reasons  before  suggested — this  has  been  more  than  the 
nation  could  bear  ;  and  hence  its  frequent  calamitous  vicissitudes. 
Under  an  adequate  and  uniform  protective  policy,  such  disasters 
could  never  come.  There  can  not  be  an  effect  without  a  cause. 
Such  a  country  as  the  United  States — which  is  a  world  in  itself 
— physically  capable — and  inuch  more  capable  in  the  genius,  arts 
and  moral  energy  of  its  tenants — of  producing  everything  essen- 
tial to  the  complete  and  perfect  independence  of  a  nation,  in  arti- 
cles of  luxury  as  well  as  of  necessity — a  nation  capable  of  an  equal 
pace  in  science,  and  in  all  improvements  of  art,  as  any  other  peo- 
ple, not  to  say  more  so — ought  never,  by  the  improvidence  of  legis- 
lation, to  be  in  debt  to  other  nations.  There  is  no  apology  for 
such  a  nation  to  be  in  the  habit  of  buying  more  than  it  sells,  which 
is  the  only  cause  of  debt  and  embarrassment.  There  can  be  no 
other. 

It  has  heretofore  been  set  up  in  defence  of  the  government,  that 
such  a  state  of  things  comes  from  the  fault  of  the  people.  But  this 
will  not  answer,  so  long  as  the  government  permits  the  foreign  factor 
— who  is  not  a  citizen,  and  who  has  no  other  interest  than  to  make 
his  fortune,  and  then  carry  the  money  away — to  bring  his  goods 
and  merchandise,  without  paying  for  the  privilege — or,  if  he  pays, 
pays  nothing  adequate  to  protect  American  citizens  in  the  same 
business — and  thus  tempt  jobbers,  and  jobbers  tempt  retailers,  and 
retailers  tempt  the  people,  till  the  latter  are  in  debt,  which  can  only 
be  discharged  by  a  remittance  through  the  same  channels  backward 
— and  the  foreign  factor  departs  with  the  money  of  the  people  in 
his  pocket !  The  parties  concerned  in  all  the  stages  of  the  trade, 
have  doubdess  profited  by  it ;  but  the  people  are  ruined,  because 
their  money  has  gone  out  of  the  country,  and  they  have  little  or 
nothing  left  to  pay  other  debts,  and  do  business  with. 


MR.    clay's    eastern    TOUR    OF    1833.  333 


CHAPTER  Xm. 

ME.    clay's    eastern    TOUR    IN    1833. 

Private  Letter  and  Project  of  this  Tour. — Public  Gratitude. — Reception  at  Balti- 
more.— At  Philadelphia. — At  New  York. — At  Providence. — At  Boston. — At 
Charlestown. — At  Bunker's  Hill. — In  Faneuil  Hall. — At  Lowell. — At  Danvers. 
— At  Salem. — Sundry  interesting  Occurrences  in  Boston  and  Vicinity. — Cor- 
respondence, Addresses,  and  Answers. — Reception  at  Worcester. — At  Hartford. 
— At  Springfield. — At  Troy. — At  Albany. — At  Newark. — His  Return  to  Wash- 
ington, through  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Wilmington. — Recognition  of 
this  Tour  in  a  Private  Letter. 

In  a  private  letter  from  Mr.  Clay  to  Judge  Brooke,  dated  Ash- 
land, May  30,  1833,  he  says  :— 

"  I  shall  leave  home  early  in  July,  to  make  a  journey,  which  I 
have  long  desired  to  perform.  I  shall  go  through  Ohio  to  Lake 
Erie  ;  thence  to  Buffalo,  Niagara,  Montreal,  Quebec,  Saratoga,  and 
toward  September,  to  Boston,  where  I  have  a  young  son  of  six- 
teen. The  papers  have  attributed  to  me  an  intention  of  visiting 
New  England,  as  if  it  were  the  principal  object  of  my  excursion. 
It  is  the  least  important  one,  and  I  should  not  go  there,  but  for  the 
sake  of  my  son.  I  intend  travelling  with  as  much  privacy  as  prac- 
ticable, and  absolutely  to  decline  every  species  of  public  enter- 
tainment. I  had  wished  to  be  accompanied  by  Mrs.  Clay,  my 
son,  and  son-in-law,  and  their  respective  wives;  but  neither  of  the 
young  ladies  can  go,  and  my  wife  hesitates  about  going  without 
them. 

"  You  perceive  that  the  journey  I  have  sketched  will  not  admit 
of  my  having  the  pleasure  of  meeting  you  at  the  White  Sulphur 
springs.  I  visit  no  place  in  the  summer  with  more  gratification 
than  that  finest  of  all  our  mineral  springs ; — but  I  have  never  seen 
the  falls  of  Niagara,  and  unless  I  avail  myself  of  this  summer  to 
go  there,  I  shall  probably  never  have  another  opportunity." 

Unexpected  events  prevented  Mr.  Clay  from  executing  the  first 
part  of  this  project  of  a  summer's  tour ;  but  he  went  to  Boston. 
It  can  not  be  denied  that  the  arduous  labors  of  the  XXII  Con- 
gress had  given  Mr.  Clay  some  title  to  relaxation  ;  and  its  event- 
fur  enactments,  in   which  he   bore  so  important  a  part — though 


334  MR.  clay's  eastern  tour  of  1833. 

some  of  them  were  strangled  in  the  birth  by  executive  vetoes,  and 
by  unconstitutional  usurpations  of  regal  power — had  inspired  the 
public  mind,  throughout  the  country,  with  a  lively  sense  of  its 
obligations  to  the  patriot  who  stood  in  the  breach,  and  dared  to 
protest  against  the  aims  of  despotic  pretensions.  The  great  meas- 
ure of  the  compromise  tariff  had  just  been  consummated,  and  the 
people  breathed  freely  again  from  the  apprehensions  they  had  suf- 
fered of  civil  disturbances.  Though  Mr.  Clay  succeeded  in 
reaching  Baltimore,  without  any  remarkable  demonstrations  from 
the  public,  it  was  impossible  after  that  to  repress  the  outbursts  of 
popular  gratitude. 

Mr.  Clay  arrived  in  Baltimore  early  in  October,  and  was  so- 
licited to  accept  a  public  dinner  there  by  the  following  note  : — 

"Baltimore,  October  8,  1833. 

"  Dear  Sir  :  We  have  great  pleasure  in  tendering  to  you,  on 
the  part  of  many  of  your  fellow-citizens  in  Baltimore,  an  invitation 
to  a  public  dinner,  to  be  given  at  the  City  Hotel,  on  any  day  which 
may  suit  your  convenience. 

"  The  sensitive  and  honorable  delicacy  by  which  your  conduct 
has  ever  been  distinguished,  seems,  while  you  were  a  candidate 
for  the  highest  office  of  this  country,  to  have  denied  to  us  the  op- 
portunity of  illustrating  to  you  the  hospitality  of  Baltimore,  and 
of  affording  the  manifestation  of  that  cordial  respect  and  friendship, 
which  are,  at  once,  the  fruit  and  the  ornament  of  your  conduct  and 
fame.  While  we  claim  a  connexion  with  you  by  the  common  ties 
which  bind  the  patriot  to  his  country,  we  ask  to  be  honored  with 
the  more  intimate  relation  that  springs  from  that  deep,  personal, 
esteem  of  your  character,  which  has  known  no  change,  but  that 
of  increased  confidence  in  your  virtues  and  talents. 

"  Under  the  influence  of  these  feelings,  we  request,  that  you 
will  name  some  day,  when  we  may  have  the  honor  of  your  com- 
pany.    We  are,  dear  sir,  your  friends  and  servants, 

"  John  M'Kim,  Jr.,  and  27  others. 

"To  the  Hon.  Henry  Clay." 

(mr.  clay's  reply.) 

"  Baltimore,  October  9,  1833. 
"Gentlemen:  I  receive,  with  deep  sensibility  and  the  most 
grateful  feelings,  the  testimony  of  confidence  and  attachment,  con- 
veyed by  your  note  of  yesterday.  It  is  true,  as  intimated  by  you, 
that  the  restraint  which  I  recently  felt  bound  to  impose  on  rnyself, 
in  respect  to  public  entertainments,  no  longer  exists  ;  and  I  should 
be  extremely  happy  to  meet  you  and  other  of  my  fellow-citizens 
of  Baltimore,  in  the  manner  most  agreeable  to  you  and  them 


MR.   clay's    eastern    TOUR  OF    1833-  335 

But,  gentlemen,  on  my  present  journey,  undertaken  in  reference 
to  duties  growing  out  of  private  relations  exclusively,  I  am  accom- 
panied by  my  family,  and  I  could  not  accept  a  public  dinner, 
without  violating  a  rule,  prompted  in  some  measure  by  their  con- 
venience, which  I  had  prescribed  to  myself  at  its  commencement. 
I  hope  that,  in  this  determination,  there  will  be  a  ready  acquies- 
cence, since  Baltimore  requires  no  fresh  proof  of  its  well-estab- 
lished hospitality,  nor  I  of  the  cordial  respect  and  friendship  which 
I  have  always  experienced  from  its  citizens. 

'  While  I  feel,  however,  constrained  to  decline  the  honor  of  a 
public  dinner,  which  has  been  so  obligingly  tendered,  it  will  afford 
to  me  the  highest  satisfaction,  at  all  times,  to  cultivate,  in  any  other 
less  formal  mode  of  social  intercourse,  the  esteem  and  friendship 
of  yourselves  and  other  inhabitants  of  this  enterprising  city.  1 
am,  gentlemen,  with  sentiments  of  the  highest  regard,  your  friend 
and  obedient  servant, 

"H.  Clay." 

At  a  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Wilmington,  Delaware,  the  4th 
of  October,  announced  as  "friends  of  Henry  Clay,  of  the  con- 
stitution, and  of  American  industry,"  the  Hon.  Arnold  Naudain 
in  the  chair,  the  following  preamble  and  resolution  were  adopted: — 

"  Understanding  that  Henry  Clay,  the  illustrious  statesman 
and  patriot,  whose  public  services  entitle  him  to  the  gratitude  of 
his  country,  while  his  talents  will  for  ever  adorn  its  annals,  is 
expected  at  New  Castle  on  this  evening,  and  being  desirous  of 
testifying  to  him  in  person  the  sentiments  of  respect  and  admira- 
tion we  entertain  for  him — 

'■^Resolved,  That  a  committee  be  appointed  to  wait  on  Mr.  Clay 
at  New  Castle,  and  tender  to  him  the  respectful  and  heartfelt  salu- 
tations of  this  meeting,  and  in  its  name  invite  him  to  favor  his  fel- 
low-citizens of  Wilmington  with  his  presence  in  this  place,  and 
partake  of  a  dinner  at  such  time  as  his  convenience  will  permit." 

A  committee,  consisting  of  the  chairman  and  thirteen  other  gen- 
tlemen, was  appointed  on  this  mission  of  hospitality,  and  performed 
their  duties,  as  the  following  correspondence  will  show  : — 

"Wilmington,  October  11,  1833. 
"Sir:  At  a  public  meeting,  held  at  this  place  to-day,  the 
undersigned  were  appointed  a  committee  to  wait  on  you  at  New 
Castle,  and  tender  you  the  respectful  and  heartfelt  salutations  of 
our  fellow-citizens,  and  in  their  name  invite  you  to  favor  our  city 
with  your  presence,  and  partake  of  a  dinner  at  such  time  as  your 
convenience  will  permit.  We  should,  however,  sir,  but  in  part 
fulfil  the  purpose  of  our  appointment,  if  we  stopped  with  tendering 
you  their  hospitality.  By  far  the  more  agreeable  portion  of  our 
office,   is    to    inform    you   of  the   motives    whence    their    wishes 


336  MR.  clay's  eastern  tour  of  1833. 

spring.  They  arise  from  the  deep  conviction  they  entertain  of 
your  merits  as  a  public  servant — from  their  admiration  of  your 
sterling  integrity — your  enlightened  patriotism — your  manly  vir- 
tues— and  though  last,  not  least,  your  unshaken  courage  in  resist- 
ing the  cruel  and  unjust  persecution  by  which  facdon  has  pursued 
you  for  many  years — qualities  which  shine  in  brighter  relief,  from 
a  contrast  with  the  character  of  those  who  have  originated  and 
fostered  it.  Permit  us  to  add,  that,  as  citizens  of  a  state  which 
has,  we  are  proud  to  say,  in  all  the  persecutions  to  which  you 
have  been  subjected,  borne  constant  testimony  to  the  integrity  and 
patriotism  of  your  life,  we  have  a  right  to  indulge  the  hope,  that 
the  invitation  of  which  we  have  the  honor  to  be  the  medium,  will 
receive  your  favorable  consideration.  We  are,  sir,  with  great 
respect,  your  friends  and  fellow-citizens, 

"  A.  Naudain,  and  others. 
"  Hon.  Henry  Clay." 

(mr.  clay's  reply.) 

"Philadelphia,  October  14,  1833. 

"  Gentlemen:  The  letter  of  the  11th  instant,  which,  at  the 
instance  of  a  public  meeting  held  in  Wilmington,  you  have  done 
me  the  honor  to  address  to  me,  invidng  me  to  visit  and  partake  of 
a  public  dinner  at  that  place,  has  been  received,  with  sentiments 
of  the  liveliest  gratitude.  I  thank  them  and  you,  most  heartily,  for 
their  and  your  friendly  salutations,  and  for  the  approbation  be- 
stowed on  my  public  exertions,  and  especially  for  the  generous 
testimony  uniformly  borne  by  the  state  of  Delaware,  in  my  behalf. 
Penetrated  by  grateful  feelings,  I  accept  with  pleasure  your 
friendly  invitation  to  visit  Wilmington,  although  I  can  not,  con- 
sistently with  the  rule  which  I  have  marked  out  for  myself,  have 
the  honor  of  accepting  that  which  has  been  given  me  to  a  public 
dinner. 

"  On  my  return  from  the  eastern  excursion  which  I  am  now 
making,  I  will  give  you  previous  notice  of  the  day  when  I  will 
have  the  pleasure  of  presenting  my  respects  in  person  to  you,  and 
such  other  of  my  fellow-citizens  of  Delaware,  as  may  choose  to 
honor  me  with  their  society.  I  am,  gentlemen,  with  high  respect, 
your  friend  and  obedient  servant,  nxj    n 

XI.    v>LAY. 

"  Messrs.  A.  Naudain,  and  others." 

Mr.  Clay  was  met  at  Frenchtown,  Delaware,  by  a  committee 
from  Philadelphia,  to  wait  upon  him  to  his  lodgings  provided  in 
that  city.  Sometime  before  the  expected  arrival,  by  steamboat, 
the  wharves  at  the  foot  of  Chestnut  street  were  crowded  with  a 
concourse  of  citizens,  and  Mr.  Clay  was  received  and  escorted  to 
the  United  States  hotel,  with  every  demonstration  of  popular  re- 


MR.    clay's    eastern    TOUR    OF    1833.  337 

gard,   and  in  the  midst  of  the  huzzas  of  the   muhitudes  ;    after 
which  the  following  correspondence  took  place : — 

"  Philadelphia,  October  14,  1833. 
<'Dear  Sir:  It  is  highly  gratifying  to  us,  that  we  have  been 
deputed  by  a  large  and  respectable  meeting  of  the  citizens  of 
Philadelphia,  to  congratulate  you  on  your  arrival  here,  and  to  ex- 
press to  you  their  most  cordial  approbation  of  your  public  and 
private  character — of  your  honorable  career,  distinguished  by  zeal 
and  ardor  in  the  cause  of  liberty,  not  only  in  our  own  beloved 
country,  but  in  distant  climes,  when  she  maintained  a  long,  a 
perilous,  and  a  dubious  struggle  with  grinding  despotism — a  career, 
moreover,  which  displayed  the  most  profound  views  of  the  only 
true  and  solid  interests  of  a  nation — protection  of  its  industry  in 
every  shape — agricultural,  manufacturing,  and  commercial — which 
you  have  at  all  times  supported  in  the  full  exercise  of  those  splen- 
did powers  with  which  Heaven  has  endowed  you — and  manifested 
a  consistency  of  conduct  as  a  statesman,  which,  unfortunately  for 
the  happiness  and  best  interests  of  mankind,  has  been  at  all  times 
too  rare  among  that  class — a  class  which  so  powerfully  operates 
upon  the  destiny  of  nations. 

•'  After  this  expression  of  our  feelings  toward  you,  we  respect- 
fully beg  leave  to  be  gratified  by  your  acceptance  of  an  invitation 
to  a  public  dinner,  on  such  day  as  may  best  suit  your  convenience. 
We  are,  sir,  very  respectfully  your  obedient  humble  servants, 

"Mathew  Carey, 
"John  Sergeant, 
"J.  R.  Ingersoll, 

"  W.    FiTLER, 

"G.  Scull. 
"  Hon.  Henry  Clay." 

(mr.  clay's  reply.) 

"  Philadelphia,  October  14,  1833. 

"  Gentlemen:  1  hasten  to  present  my  cordial  and  respectful 
thanks  for  the  friendly  congratulations,  communicated  in  your  note 
of  to-day,  just  received.  1  have  never  visited  your  fine  city  with- 
out high  gratification,  but  on  no  other  occasion  with  greater  than 
the  present.  I  feel,  with  deep  sensibility,  the  approbation  of  my 
character  and  conduct,  which  you  have  so  kindly  expressed.  If 
gentlemen,  as  I  am  quite  sure,  you  estimate  too  highly  my  exer 
tions  in  the  cause  of  human  liberty,  and  that  of  promoting  the 
general  prosperity  of  our  country,  your  partiality  does  not  exag- 
gerate the  zeal  and  ardor  with  which  I  have  honestly  strived  to 
maintain  its  freedom  and  secure. its  interests.  I  regret  that  I  have 
been  able  to  do  so  little  ;  but  the  time  has  arrived,  which  1  long 
ago  apprehended,  when   our   greatest  exertions   are  necessary  to 

Vol.  IL— 22 


338  MR.  clay's  eastern  tour  of  1833. 

rnaintain  the  free  institutions  inherited  from  our  ancestors.  Yes, 
gentlemen,  disguise  is  useless.  The  time  is  come,  when  we 
must  decide,  whether  the  constitution,  the  laws,  and  the  checks 
which  they  have  respectively  provided,  shall  prevail ;  or  the  will 
of  one  man  shall  have  uncontrolled  sway  ?  In  the  settlement  of 
that  question,  I  shall  be  found  where  I  have  ever  been. 
"  I  pray  you  to  convey  to  the  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  whom 
you  represent,  my  grateful  acknowledgments  of  their  friendly  re- 
ception of  me,  and  to  express  to  them  my  regret  that  circumstances 
will  not  allow  me  to  accept  the  honor  of  a  public  dinner,  which 
they  have  been  pleased  to  offer.  I  add,  gentlemen,  for  yourselves, 
assurances  of  the  high  respect  and  regard  of  your  friend  and  hum- 
ble servant,  ,,  tt    r^ 

"  H.  Clay. 

"  Messrs.  M.  Carey,  &c." 

The  pointed  character  of  some  parts  of  the  above  reply  of  Mr. 
Clay,  will  be  appreciated,  when  it  is  considered,  that  the  decisive 
and  momentous  event  of  the  removal  of  the  public  deposites  had, 
within  a  few  days,  taken  place,  the  detail  of  which,  and  the  conse- 
quences thereof,  are  given  at  large  in  another  part  of  this  work. 

While  the  guest  of  Philadelphia,  Mr.  Clay  was  visited  by 
many  thousand  persons,  but  with  as  little  ceremony  as  possible,  in 
conformity  with  his  known  wishes  ;  and  when  he  left  for  New 
York,  a  vast  concourse  of  citizens  assembled  to  take  leave  of  him. 
He  was  accompanied  by  a  committee  of  Philadelphians  as  far  as 
Amboy,  where  he  was  met  and  received  by  a  committee  from  the 
city  of  New  York,  at  which  place,  on  landing,  he  was  welcomed 
by  an  immense  throng  of  citizens,  and  escorted  by  a  procession  to 
his  lodgings  at  the  American  hotel. 

On  Wednesday,  the  16th  of  October,  Mr.  Clay  received  his 
fellow-citizens  publicly  at  the  governor's  room,  city-hall,  which 
had  been  politely  tendered  by  the  municipal  authorities,  the  mayor 
of  the  city  doing  the  honors  of  the  occasion.  He  was  there  waited 
upon  by  numerous  merchants,  members  of  the  chamber  of  com- 
merce, and  others,  in  a  body  ;  by  the  grand  jury  ;  and  by  crowds 
of  citizens  and  strangers.  Having  dined  with  the  committee,  he 
visited  the  mercantile  and  mechanics'  libraries,  where  he  was  hon- 
ored with  more  formal  notices  than  he  desired,  and  was  forced  to 
make  some  brief  replies.  On  the  17th  he  visited  the  fair  of  the 
American  Institute  ;  went  to  the  theatre  in  the  evening,  where 
strong  demonstrations  were  made  in  recognition  of  his  presence  ; 
and  concluded  the  day  at  a  supper,  in  the  city  saloon,  with  the 
committee  of  the  American  Institute,  where,  being  honored  with  a 


V 
MR.    clay's    eastern    TOUR    OF    1833-  '         339 

sentiment,  he  made  a  brief  address.  Constant  calls  were  of  course 
made  upon  Mr.  Clay  at  the  American  hotel,  and  various  compli- 
ments were  tendered  to  draw  him  into  parties,  and  before  the  pub- 
lic— which,  for  the  most  part  he  was  constrained  by  a  general  rule 
he  had  adopted  for  his  journey,  to  decline.  Among  the  rest,  the 
following  note  was  addressed  to  Mrs.  Clay  : — 

"  New  York,  October  16,  1833. 
"  Madam  :  The  young  men  of  the  city  of  New  York,  through 
us,  as  their  committee,  beg  leave  to  tender  to  you  an  invitation  to 
a  ball,  to  be  given  on  your  return  from  the  east,  in  honor  of  the 
arrival  among  us  of  yourself  and  your  illustrious  husband.  In 
performing  this  office,  we  are  confidently  assured,  that  we  represent 
the  wishes  of  a  large  and  distinguished  portion  of  our  citizens, 
and  indulge  the  hope,  that,  by  the  acceptance  on  your  part,  they 
may  be  gratified  in  thus  furnishing  you  an  additional  evidence  of 
their  respect  and  esteem.  We  have  the  honor  to  be,  madam,  your 
obedient  servants,  "  David  Graham, 

"  Samuel  D.  Jackson, 
"Simeon  Draper,  Jr. 
♦'  Mrs.  Clay." 

To  which  a  reply  was  made  by  Mr.  Clay,  in  behalf  of  his  lady, 
as  follows : — 

"  New  York,   11th  October,  1833. 

*'  Gentlemen  :  Mrs.  Clay  has  received  the  invitation  with 
which  the  young  men  of  the  city  of  New  York,  through  you,  have 
honored  her,  to  a  ball,  on  her  return  from  the  east ;  and  she 
charges  me  to  communicate  her  respectful  acknowledgments  for 
it.  If  she  had  not  ceased  to  participate  in  that  description  of  en- 
tertainment, she  would  accept  with  pleasure,  the  offer  of  one  from 
a  source  so  highly  respectable,  and  made  with  a  motive  so  gratify- 
ing to  her  feelings.  In  declining  it,  she  requests  the  young  men, 
at  whose  instance  it  is  tendered,  to  be  assured,  that  she  will  long 
retain  a  grateful  sense  of  their  friendly  purpose.  I  also  pray  the 
acceptance  of  my  acknowledgments,  and  assurance  of  the  high 
respect  with  which  I  am  their  and  your  friend  and  obedient  ser- 

^^"t'  "  H.  Clay. 

"Messrs.  Graham,  Jackson,  and  Draper." 

The  following  note  from  Mr.  Clay,  is  a  recognition  of  the 
politeness  of  the  steamboat  company  between  New  York  and 
Boston  : — 

"  New  York,  KSth  October,  1833. 

"  Sir  :  1  received  your  obliging  note,  tendering  the  use  of  one 
of  the  steamboats  of  the  New  York  and  Boston  steamboat  com- 


340  MR.  clay's  eastern  tour  of  1833. 

pany,  by  their  direction,  for  the  conveyance  of  myself  and  family 
to  Rhode  Island.  I  request,  that  you  will  communicate  to  the 
company  my  respectful  acknowledgments  for  their  friendly  offer, 
and  to  say  to  them,  that  I  will  so  far  avail  myself  of  it,  as  to  take 
a  passage  for  myself  in  the  boat  of  Friday  next,  at  the  customary 
hour  of  her  departure.  I  beg.  however,  that  we  may  be  considered 
as  ordinary  passengers,  and  that  no  exclusive  arrangements  may  be 
made  for  us.     I  am  with  great  respect,  your  obedient  servant, 

"H.  Clay. 
"  To   the  President  of  the  New  York  and  Boston  Steamboat 
Company." 

The  following  extract  from  the  New  York  "Evening  Star," 
a  political  opponent  of  Mr.  Clay,  is  a  grateful  record  of  good 
feeling,  indited  at  this  lime  : — 

"  We  opposed  his  election  [in  1832],  and  rejoiced  at  his  defeat. 
But,  we  can  not  forget  the  steady  uniform  efforts  he  made  in  the 
great  struggle  of  1S12,  to  sustain  the  country  at  a  period  of  dark- 
ness and  peril,  when  many,  very  many,  of  those  who  now  claim  to 
be  influential  leading  democrats,  were  in  the  ranks  of  our  bitterest 
opponents.  We  can  not  forget  the  voice  of  the  man  who  elo- 
quently pleaded  the  cause  of  South  American  independence.  We 
can  not  forget  the  man  who  assisted  to  negotiate  an  honorable  peace 
at  Ghent ;  nor,  at  a  more  recent  period,  when,  by  an  lionorable 
compromise,  he  arrested  the  uplifted  sabre  on  our  own  soil,  as  he 
did  on  the  celebrated  Missouri  question." 

Mr.  Clay  embarked  on  the  ISth,  for  Boston,  in  the  steamer 
President,  decorated  with  flags,  and  was  honored  on  his  departure 
with  the  attendance  of  a  numerous  concourse  of  citizens,  whose 
cheers,  as  the  boat  left  the  wharf,  expressed  the  good  feeling  that 
followed  him.  About  11  o'clock  in  the  evening,  the  President 
met  the  steamer  Franklin,  from  Providence,  on  the  bosom  of  Long 
Island  sound,  where  a  brilliant  display  of  fireworks  was  made 
from  both  vessels,  as  they  passed  each  other,  gorgeously  illumina- 
ting the  scene,  and  creating  a  rare  spectacle  for  the  entertainment 
of  both  parties,  but  especially  the  numerous  company  on  board  the 
President,  for  whose  guest  the  compliment  was  intended. 

After  a  short  stop  at  Newport  in  the  uiorning,  the  citizens  as- 
sembled to  honor  the  distinguished  visiter,  were  reluctantly  forced 
to  acquiesce  in  his  departure  for  Providence;  but  a  committee 
from  Newport  joined  the  company.  A  committee  from  Providence 
was  also  on  board,  who  had  been  appointed  at  a  public  meeting  on 
the  12th  of  October,  from  the  doings  of  which  the  following  is  an 
extract : — 


MR.    clay's    eastern-    TOUR    OF    1833.  341 

"This  meeting  having  been  informed,  that  the  Hon.  Henry 
Clay,  of  Kentucky,  will  visit  New  England  in  the  course  of  a 
few  days,  and  desiring  that  so  eminent  a  statesman,  orator,  and 
patriot,  may  receive  in  this  state  appropriate  testimonials  of  respect 
and  gratitude  for  his  public  services — 

'■'■Resolved  unanimoushj,  That  a  committee  be  appointed  to  in- 
vite Mr.  Clay  to  visit  this  state  and  city,  and  to  receive  him  here 
on  his  arrival — to  invite  him  to  a  public  dinner,  and  to  offer  him 
such  other  tokens  of  public  regard,  as  they  may  deem  expedient. 

"Joseph  L.  Tillinghast,   CIiairmu7i.''^ 

This  committee,  consisting  of  twenty  citizens,  acting  in  obe- 
dience to  their  instructions,  addressed  a  letter  to  Mr.  Clay,  and 
received  an  answer  on  his  arrival,  of  which  the  following  is  an 
extract : — 

"Nor  can  I  suppress  the  gratification  which  I  have  derived,  from 
a  survey,  in  this  prosperous  place,  of  the  rich  and  abundant  proofs 
of  that  true  policy  of  our  government,  which  inculcates  reliance 
upon  our  own  ample  resources  and  undoubted  skill,  rather  than 
dependence  upon  foreign  supplies.  If  T  had  ever  doubted  the 
wisdom  of  that  policy,  heretofore,  the  many  proofs  which  I  have 
seen  of  its  effects,  during  my  present  journey,  would  liave  ban- 
ished my  doubts." 

Mr.  Clay  was  compelled,  by  the  rule  he  had  adopted,  to  decline 
the  dinner.  His  reception  in  Providence  was  enthusiastic.  He 
visited  the  university,  the  various  manufacturing  establishments, 
and  after  resting  on  Sunday,  and  attending  divine  worship  at  the 
first  Baptist  church,  he  proceeded  on  Monday,  escorted  by  the 
committee  from  Providence,  to  the  great  manufacturing  village  of 
Pawtucket,  where  he  met  the  committee  of  reception  from  Boston. 
Having  surveyed  the  manufacturing  establishments,  Mr.  Clay  left 
for  Boston,  and  arrived  there  the  same  day,  in  company  with  the 
committee,  having  been  met  at  Roxbury  by  a  numerous  cavalcade 
of  young  men,  who  escorted  him  to  the  Tremont  house,  receiving 
a  federal  salute  as  he  passed  the  common.  Notwithstanding  the 
inclemency  of  the  weather,  the  streets  were  thronged,  and  he  was 
cheered  through  the  whole  line  of  march,  after  his  reception  by  a 
committee  of  forty  as  he  entered  Boston.  At  the  Tremont,  he 
was  addressed  by  Mr.  Winthrop,  in  behalf  of  the  young  men  of 
Boston,  to  which  Mr.  Clay  briefly  responded: — 

"  That  he  begged  the  young  men  of  Boston  to  believe,  that  he 
was  not  ungrateful  for  this  mark  of  their  respect  and  friendship; 
that  he  had  hoped  to  pass  along  as  a  private  citizen ;  that,  since  he 


342  MR.    clay's    eastern    tour   of    1833. 

crossed  the  mountains,  he  had  been  deprived  of  his  liberty,  taken 
captive — was  in  custody — but  found  his  bondage  so  pleasant,  that 
he  had  as  little  desire,  as  ability,  to  gain  his  freedom.  Mr.  Clay 
said,  he  was  happy  to  agree  with  his  fellow-citizens  of  Boston  on 
almost  all  public  questions ;  but  politics  apart,  there  w  ere  associa- 
tions, historical,  revolutionary,  and  local,  connected  with  that  soil 
of  the  pilgrims,  that  awakened  a  strong  and  thrilling  interest  in  his 
mind." 

Mr.  Clay  bowed,  and  retired;  but  instead  of  finding  repose, 
through  the  folding-doors  that  opened  to  receive  him,  he  was  ush- 
ered into  the  presence  of  the  senior  citizens  of  Boston,  and  was 
again  eloquently  addressed  by  Mr.  William  Sullivan,  in  be- 
half of  his  compeers  ;  and  was  again  tasked  with  a  brief  recognition 
of  the  honors  bestowed. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  say,  that  the  characteristic  hospitality  of  the 
city  of  Boston  did  not  evince  a  falling  off  in  the  entertainments 
proffered  to  their  distinguished  guest.  The  day  after  JNIr.  Clay's 
arrival,  he  visited  ex-president  Adams  at  Quincy,  and  on  his  return 
in  the  afternoon,  he  was  waited  upon  by  the  mayor  and  aldermen 
of  the  city  in  a  body.  Committees  from  Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  and 
from  Portland,  Maine,  were  deputed  to  invite  Mr.  Clay  to  visit 
those  places — which,  however,  he  was  compelled  respectfully  to 
decline.  Numerous  other  towns  in  that  quarter  of  New  England 
sent  deputations  on  similar  errands.  The  following  correspon- 
dence is  a  part  of  the  history  of  this  occasion  : — 

"Boston,  October  18,  1833. 

"Sir:  At  a  public  meeting  of  citizens  of  Boston,  assembled 
to  consider  in  what  manner  they  should  express  the  high  grat- 
ification which  they  feel  in  learning  your  intention  to  visit  this  city, 
and  to  make  known  the  sentiments  entertained  of  your  public  life 
and  individual  character,  a  conmiittee  of  forty  persons  was  selected 
to  communicate  these  sentiments. 

"  This  committee  has  now  the  honor  to  assure  you,  in  behalf 
of  their  numerous  constitutents,  that  they  rejoice  in  the  opportu- 
nity of  testifying  the  respect  and  esteem  in  which  you  are  held  by 
them,  for  your  eloquent  exertions  in  both  halls  of  Congress,  for 
the  wisdom  by  which  you  were  guided  in  a  dignified  and  most 
important  diplomatic  mission,  and  for  your  labors  in  the  depart- 
ment of  state.  They  are  pleased  to  see  among  them  an  eminent 
citizen  from  the  western  region  of  our  extensive  republic,  con- 
nected with  the  citizens  of  the  east,  by  commercial,  social,  and 
kindred  relations,  as  well  as  by  the  national  bond,  which  you  have 
ever  held  to  be  indissoluble  and  sacred. 


MR.    clay's    eastern    TOUR    OF    1833-  343 

"  Our  constituents  have  directed  us,  as  one  mode  of  expressing 
their  sentiments,  to  ask  of  you  the  honor  and  favor  of  your  pres- 
ence at  a  puhHc  dinner  in  Faneuil  hall,  where  the  eloquent,  the  wise, 
and  the  patriotic,  have  been  often  heard,  on  such  day  as  may  best 
suit  your  own  convenience.  We  are  aware  that  similar  invitations 
have  been  offered  and  declined  in  other  cities.  But  we  venture  to 
assume,  that  the  reasons  for  declining  may  be  referred  to  the  haste 
in  which  you  passed  through  those  cities,  and  that  your  sojourn 
here  will  be  sufficiently  prolonged  to  permit  the  gratification  most 
earnestly  desired,  of  meeting  you  at  the  festive  board. 

"  We  have  the  honor  to  be,  sir,  for  our  constituents  and  our- 
selves, most  respectfully  your  friends  and  fellow-citizens, 

"Thomas  H.  Perkins, 
And  thirty-nine  other  citizens  of  Boston. 

"Hon.  Henry  Clay." 

(reply.) 

"  Boston,  October  22,  1833. 

"Gentlemen:  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt, 
at  Providence,  of  your  note  of  the  18th  instant,  addressed  to  me 
at  the  instance  of  a  public  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Boston,  wel- 
coming my  arrival  here,  and  tendering  me  the  compliment  of  a 
public  dinner  at  Faneuil  hall.  If  anything  could  induce  me  to 
depart  from  a  rule  adopted  at  the  commencement  of  my  journey, 
and  which  I  verbally  communicated  to  your  chairman,  It  would  be 
the  distinguished  manner  in  which  that  compliment  is  offered,  the 
place  at  which  it  is  proposed,  and  the  eloquent  and  patriotic  asso- 
ciations, ancient  and  modern,  in  the  midst  of  which  I  should  there 
find  myself  placed.  But  I  have  thought  it  best  to  adhere  to  a 
rule,  the  convenience  of  which  I  have  tested  by  experience ;  espe- 
cially as  I  have  been  unable  to  discover  any  reasons  for  an  excep- 
tion, the  force  of  which  is  felt  by  myself,  or  would  be  admitted 
by  others. 

"I  would  limit  myself,  therefore,  gentlemen,  to  an  expression 
of  my  respectful  and  grateful  acknowledgments  for  the  honor  de- 
signed me,  for  the  approbation  of  my  public  services,  whicli  has 
been  so  flatteringly  conveyed,  and  for  the  cordial  greetings  and 
salutations  with  which  I  have  been  favored. 

"  The  necessity  which  obliges  me  to  decline  the  honor  of  the 
proposed  festive  meeting,  is  regretted  less  because  as  my  sojourn 
here  will  be  extended  to  a  week  or  two,  I  shall,  I  trust,  have  many 
and  various  opportunities  of  mixing  with  my  fellow-citizens  of 
Boston  in  an  unreserved  and  social  manner,  which  best  comports 
with  niy  feelings  and  disposition. 

"I  pray  you,  gentlemen,  to  accept  my  thanks  for  the  very  obli- 
ging mode  which  you  were  pleased  to  adopt  for  the  delivery  of 
your  communication ;  and  also  assurances  of  my  best  wishes  for 


344  MR.    clay's    eastern    tour    of    1833. 

the  continued  prosperity  of  your  renowned  city,  and  for  your  indi- 
vidual welfare. 

"I  am,  with  high  respect,  faithfully  your  friend  and  fellow- 
citizen,  "H.  Clay. 

"  Thomas  H.  Perkins,  and  others." 

On  the  23d  of  October,  in  compliance  with  an  engagement  with 
a  deputation  of  the  citizens  of  Charlestown,  Mr.  Clay  visited  that 
town  and  Bunker  Hill.  On  this  hallowed  eminence,  a  platform 
having  been  erected  for  the  occasion,  Mr.  Clay  was  addressed  by 
the  Hon.  Edward  Everett,  chairman  of  the  committee,  as  follows : — 

"  Sir  :  I  take  great  pleasure,  on  behalf  of  my  colleagues  of 
the  committee,  and  of  our  fellow-citizens  present,  in  bidding  you 
welcome  to  this  celebrated  spot — the  scene  of  the  first  general  ac- 
tion of  the  revolutionary  war.  Feeling  that  the  career  of  civil  ser- 
vice is  as  arduous,  as  important,  and  as  meritorious,  as  that  of  the 
warrior  and  the  hero,  we  take  a  pride,  sir — on  this  theatre  of  mil- 
itary renown — in  paying  our  humble  respects  to  one,  whose  life 
has  been  devoted  to  the  untiring  and  successful  discharge — and 
often  in  difficult  times — of  the  duties  of  the  legislator  and  the 
statesman. 

"  We  feel  a  peculiar  satisfaction  in  a  visit  to  this  part  of  the 
country,  of  a  distinguished  citizen  of  the  west.  When  the  battle 
was  fought,  which  has  immortalized  the  heights  of  Charlestown, 
the  great  and  prosperous  state,  sir,  of  which  you  are  a  citizen,  was 
the  unshared  domain  of  the  savage.  None  but  a  few  daring  hunt- 
ers had  burst  the  gates  of  the  Allegany  mountains,  and  a  party  of 
them  gave  to  their  encampment  in  the  woods — now  the  place  of 
your  residence,  the  city  of  Lexington — the  name  of  the  beautiful 
village  in  this  neighborhood,  where  the  first  blood  of  the  revolution- 
ary war  had,  a  few  weeks  before,  been  shed.  Fifty  years  only 
have  elapsed  since  the  close  of  that  war ;  and  we  behold  the 
mighty  west — then  untenanted,  unexplored — teeming  with  a  greater 
population  than  that  with  which  the  thirteen  colonies  plunged  into 
the  contest. 

''  That  vast  and  flourishing  region  justly  boasts  of  you,  sir,  as 
one  of  the  most  dislino;uished  of  her  sons;  but  we  also  claim  a 
share  in  your  reputation,  as  one  of  the  treasures  of  our  common 
country.  And  as  your  talents  and  efforts  have  been  employed  to 
augment  the  blessings  of  our  independence,  we  feel  that  we  do  no 
more  than  justice  in  thus  bidding  you  a  public  and  cordial  wel- 
come to  the  spot,  where  our  fathers  laid  down  their  lives  for  its 
establishment." 

The  following  is  an  imperfect  sketch  of  Mr.  Clay's  reply: — 

"I  thank  you,  Mr.  Chairman,  and  you,  gentlemen  of  the  com- 
mittee, and  fellow-citizens,  for  this  cordial  and  flattering  welcome. 


MR.    clay's    eastern    TOUR    OF    1833.  345 

I  can  not  express  to  you  the  feelings  of  satisfaction  with  which  I 
receive  these  assurances  of  your  friendly  feeling,  on  a  spot  so 
justly  celebrated.  I  ascribe  it  to  your  partiality,  rather  than  to 
any  merit  of  my  own,  that  you  have  been  pleased  to  connect  my 
name  in  so  honorable  an  association,  with  the  gallant  and  patriotic 
men,  who,  upon  this  distinguished  spot,  sealed  their  devotion  to 
their  country  with  their  blood. 

"  They  laid  down  their  lives  for  the  independence  of  their 
country,  and  when  that  great  object  was  attained,  they  deemed  it 
equally  important,  and  still  more  incumbent  upon  them,  to  secure 
that  independence  on  the  basis  of  knowledge  and  virtue.  They 
were  as  anxious  to  build  up  those  institutions,  which  were  neces- 
sary to  make  our  liberty  the  source  of  blessings  to  the  people,  as 
they  were  to  triumph  in  the  field  of  battle. 

"  You  have  been  pleased,  sir,  to  allude  with  kindness  to  my  ef- 
forts in  the  public  service.  If  I  may  flatter  myself,  that  I  have  in 
any  degree  cooperated  in  the  great  work  which  our  fathers  had  at 
heart,  as  the  final  object  of  their  toils  ;  if  I  have  done  anything 
worthy  the  acceptance  of  my  fellow-citizens,  in  laboring  to  aug- 
ment the  blessings  of  our  independence,  I  shall  feel  myself  more 
than  compensated  for  the  discouragements,  which,  according  to  the 
common  estimate  of  things,  have  attended  my  public  career. 

"  Permit  me  again,  sir,  to  thank  you  for  this  kind  reception,  and 
to  renew  to  my  fellow-citizens  the  assurance  of  the  gratitude  which 
warms  my  heart  at  these  proofs  of  their  hospitality  and  good  will." 

After  this  ceremony  on  Bunker  Hill,  Mr.  Clay,  under  the  guid- 
ance of  Commodore  Elliott,  visited  the  navy-yard,  and  was  there 
presented  with  an  imitation  volume,  by  the  hand  of  the  daughter 
of  the  commodore,  wrought  from  the  timber  of  the  frigate  Con- 
stitution, and  labelled  "  Old  Iron  Sides." 

An  interesting  incident  occurred  on  the  24th — next  day — at 
Mount  Auburn,  where  three  revolutionary  soldiers,  brothers,  of  a 
family  of  seven  then  living,  two  of  the  three  being  twins,  were  in- 
troduced to  Mr.  Clay,  each  of  whom  served  through  the  war,  and 
the  twins  were  in  the  engagement  at  Concord.  These  old  sol- 
diers, the  twins  86,  and  the  other  76,  were  yet  fat  and  stout,  each 
of  them  weighing  over  200  pounds. 

Notwithstanding  Mr.  Clay  had  declined  the  dinner  at  Faneuil 
hall,  advantage  was  taken  of  the  occasion  of  his  visit  there,  to 
make  it  somewhat  formal,  and  to  let  it  generally  be  known.  He 
was  conducted  from  an  adjoining  room,  by  the  honorable  T.  H. 
Perkins,  to  the  platform  at  the  west  end  of  the  hall,  when  Mr. 
Sullivan  embraced  the  opportunity  to  address  him  as  follows  : — 

Mr,  Sullivan  said,  "  lie  had  been  requested  by  his  fellow-citizens 


346  MR.  clay's  eastern  tour  of  1833. 

to  welcome  Mr.  Clay,  on  their  behalf,  to  Faneuil  hall,  which 
they  were  accustomed  to  speak  of  as  the  Cradle  op  Liberty." 
He  said,  that  "here,  in  occasional  meetings,  in  the  performance 
of  the  duties  of  citizenship,  were  commemorated  the  sterling  pa- 
triotism and  undaunted  eloquence,  which  roused  our  country  to 
gain  the  freedom  now  enjoyed.  It  was  here,"  said  Mr.  t>ullivan, 
"that  the  first  act  was  done,  which  decided  what  the  charac- 
ter of  the  contest  must  be,  between  the  colonies  and  the  mother- 
country.  In  December,  1773,  it  was  resolved  here,  that  no  du- 
ties should  be  paid  on  teas  imported  from  England,  and  that  no 
teas  should  be  landed  on  our  shores. 

"  Among  other  names  often  mentioned  as  of  those  times,"  he 
said,  "  were  those  of  Quincy,  Otis,  Hancock,  and  Adams,  hon- 
orably associated  with  the  revolution  ;  and  that,  in  short,  almost 
every  important  measure  of  those  days,  was  in  some  way  associa- 
ted with  Faneuil  hall. 

"  That,  since  the  adoption  of  the  national  constitution,  many 
interesting  and  eloquent  discussions  had  occurred  in  this  place  ; 
and  that  the  names  of  Quincy  and  Otis,  but  in  another  generation, 
again  appear,  and  that  the  eloquence  of  these,  as  well  as  of  Dex- 
ter and  Ames,  had  often  been  heard  here  by  applauding  multi- 
tudes ;  that,  at  a  more  modern  date,  other  men  had  been  heard  in 
this  hall,  the  voices  of  some  of  whom  had  been  heard  by  himself 
[Mr.  Clay]  in  other  halls  ;  and  that  no  one  could  better  judge  than 
himself,  of  the  justice  of  the  respect  in  which  they  were  held,  for 
the  manly  truths  which  they  had  expressed. 

"  That  this  hall  was  also  a  place  of  assembly  on  some  festive 
occasions,  and  that  it  had  been  earnestly  desired  to  have  met  him 
[Mr.  Clay]  here,  at  a  festival  to  be  given  in  honor  of  his  visit ; 
that,  if  this  had  been  so,  be  would  have  seen  all  classes  mingling 
here,  on  the  true  principles  of  republican  equality,  orderly  and 
decorous,  and  deeply  impressed  with  a  proper  sense  of  the  uses  to 
which  freedom  may  be  applied  in  social  enjoyment. 

"  That,  although  they  were  not  to  have  the  honor  and  pleasure 
of  so  meeting  him,  they  were  bound  to  respect  his  reasons  for  de- 
clining, and  would  not  trespass  on  the  ground  which  he  had  re- 
served to  himself. 

"  It  WHS,  however,  a  gratification  to  the  citizens  of  Boston  to 
see  him  in  this  hall,  as  all  of  them  knew  his  public  life  and  char- 
acter, and  the  part  which  he  had  taken  in  establishing  the  national 
welfare  and  independence  ;  and  especially  as  they  could  readily 
associate  him  with  the  grateful  recollections,  which  fill  the  heart 
of  every  Bostonian  when  he  comes  within  these  walls." 

Mr.  Clay,  thus  taken  by  surprise,  made  a  few  remarks,  as  fol- 
lows : — 

"  That,  on  leaving  home  to  perform  the  journey  which  termin- 


MR.    clay's    eastern    TOUR    OF    1833.  3^7 

ates  here,  it  had  been  his  wish  to  pass  on  quietly,  without  attract- 
ing any  notice  on  his  own  account,  or  coming  into  contact  with 
large  portions  of  his  fellow-citizens.  It  was  especially  his  desire 
to  avoid  all  public  entertainments,  with  which  it  might  be  proposed 
to  honor  him.  But  no  self-imposed  restraints,  no  considerations 
of  expediency,  could  induce  him  to  remain  silent,  after  the  address 
wdiich  he  had  just  heard,  or  to  withhold  the  expression  of  his 
heartfelt  gratitude,  for  the  warm  greeting,  the  cordial  welcome, 
and  the  enthusiastic  demonstrations,  with  which  he  had  been  re- 
ceived ;  and  especially  this  day,  in  this  venerable  hall.  Among 
his  earliest  recollections — recollections  which  served  deeply  to  im- 
press upon  his  mind  an  attachment  to  civil  liberty — were  revolu- 
tionary events  and  incidents,  of  which  this  hall,  this  city,  and  this 
state,  were  the  patriotic  theatre.  And  if,  as  history  assures  us,  in 
the  progress  of  human  affairs,  human  liberty  shall  be  once  more 
exposed  to  danger  in  this  favored  land,  he  trusted  that  this  hall 
will  again  resound  with  inspired  eloquence,  and  that  a  spirit  will 
here  go  forth  to  sustain  its  interests,  and  vindicate  its  rights." 

Mr.  Clay  said,  that  "  he  had  everywhere,  since  he  passed  the 
mountains,  received  testimonies  of  respect  and  attachment,  far 
transcending  the  value  of  any  public  services  he  had  ever  per- 
formed. They  were  gratifying  rewards  of  the  past,  and  powerful 
incentives  to  fresh  exertions  in  future,  if  it  should  ever  become  his 
duty  to  make  them,  in  behalf  of  our  common  country.  At  all 
events,  he  should  carry  to  the  retirement,  which  he  most  anxiously 
desired,  a  cherished  recollection  of  them. 

Mr.  Clay  said,  "  he  should  have  been  pleased  to  have  found 
himself  able  to  accept  the  public  hospitality,  so  cordially  offered 
him  by  the  citizens  of  Boston,  and  to  have  met  them  in  another 
manner  in  this  hall.  But,  having  declined  all  similar  invitations 
in  other  cities,  he  could  not  make  an  exception,  without  an  invidi- 
ous discrimination.  It  was  some  compensation  for  this  privation, 
that,  as  his  sojourn  here  would  be  longer  than  in  any  other  places, 
he  hoped  to  find  opportunities  of  meeting  all  who  might  be  dis- 
posed to  honor  him  with  a  friendly  intercourse.  And  he  embraced 
the  occasion  to  tender  to  them  collectively,  as  he  hoped  he  might 
do  individually,  his  respectful  salutations,  and  his  best  and  earnest 
wishes." 

Some  five  to  six  thousand  persons,  it  was  supposed,  were  indi- 
vidually presented  to  Mr.  Clay,  on  this  occasion.  On  the  25th 
of  October,  he  visited  Lowell,  passed  through  the  manufacturing 
establishments,  and  was  waited  upon  by  the  people  at  the  town  hall 
in  the  evening.  A  pair  of  silver  pitchers,  with  appropriate  devi- 
ces, weighing  1-50  ounces,  was  presented  to  Mr.  Clay  by  the  young 
men  of  Boston,  on  which  occasion,  being  taken  unawares,  as  was 


348  MR.  clay's  eastern  tour  of  1833. 

frequently  the  case  in  the  honors  contrived,  he  delivered  a  capti- 
vating address.  As  the  American  advocate  of  the  manufacturing 
arts,  these  everywhere  claimed  and  received  his  attention,  of  which 
the  following  correspondence  is  an  example  : — 

"  Boston,  October  25,  1833. 

"Dear  Sir  :  Allow  me  to  offer  for  the  acceptance  of  Mrs.  Clay, 
a  straw  bonnet — a  specimen  of  an  article  manufactured  in  New 
England,  in  various  styles,  to  a  great  extent.  The  bonnet  is 
truly  American,  every  article  used  in  its  manufacture,  including 
the  silk,  warp,  and  sewing-thread,  having  been  produced  in  New 
England.  It  is  but  an  act  of  justice  to  inform  you,  that  the  bon- 
net was  shaped  at  the  establishment  of  Miss  S.  H.  Bingham. 

"It  may  not  be  uninteresting  to  you  to  learn,  that  I  am  now 
putting  in  operation  one  hundred  looms  for  the  purpose  of  weav- 
ing straw,  which  will  give  employment  to  one  hundred  and  fifty 
persons. 

"  This  is  offered,  not  only  as  a  tribute  to  your  exertions  in  pro- 
moting American  industry,  but  as  one  of  the  evidences  of  the 
happy  results  arising  from  the  success  of  those  great  principles 
•which  you  have  advocated  with  so  much  zeal,  and  in  the  realiza- 
tion of  which  our  citizens  are  enjoying  a  degree  of  prosperity  un- 
paralleled in  the  history  of  any  nation. 

"  I  am  truly  your  obedient  servant, 

"  Seth  S.  Lynde. 

"  Hon.  H.  Clay." 

(reply.) 

"  Boston,  October  28,  1833. 

"Dear  Sir:  Mrs.  Clay  desires  me  to  offer  her  thanks,  as  I 
do  mine,  for  the  straw  bonnet,  shaped  at  the  establishment  of  Miss 
S.  H.  Bingham,  which  you  have  done  us  the  favor  to  present. 
Both  the  material  and  the  form  are  very  pretty,  and  Mrs.  Clay 
will  derive  satisfaction  in  wearing  it,  from  the  fact,  that  every  arti- 
cle employed  in  making  it,  including  the  silk,  is  American. 

"  I  am  glad  to  hear  of  the  success  of  this  branch  of  manufac- 
tures. It  proves  that  our  women,  no  less  than  our  men,  are  skil- 
ful in  the  application  of  their  taste  and  ingenuity  to  any  objects 
which  engage  their  industry. 

"  With  my  best  wishes  for  the  prosperity  of  your  business,  and 
for  your  individual  welfare,  I  am,  with  great  respect,  your  friend 
and  obedient  servant,  "  H.  Clay. 

"Mr.  Seth  S.  Lynde." 

On  the  29th  of  October,  Mr.  Clay  visited  Lynn,  Danvers,  and 
Salem,  accompanied  by  a  large  cavalcade  of  citizens  of  the  town 
and  country,  greeted  everywhere  by  dense  throngs  of  people.  In 
reply  to  an  address  made  to  him  at  Danvers,  Mr.  Clay  said  ; — 


MR.    clay's    eastern    TOUR   OF    1833.  349 

"  It  gives  me  great  pleasure,  sir  [addressing  John  W.  Proctor, 
Esq.,  chairman  of  the  committee],  to  meet  the  citizens  of  Dan- 
vers — a  place,  of  whose  industry  and  prosperity  I  have  been  made 
in  some  degree  acquainted,  and  the  evidences  of  which  are  mani- 
fested all  around  me.  You  have  been  pleased,  sir,  to  allude  to 
the  policy  I  have  pursued,  in  the  concerns  of  the  national  govern- 
ment ;  and  it  is  gratifying  to  me  to  learn,  that  the  measures  I  have 
advocated — and  with  what  zeal  and  sincerity  my  friends  present 
who  bore  a  part  with  me  can  testify — meet  the  approbation  of  my 
friends  at  Danvers.  I  long  ago  came  to  the  conclusion,  that  a 
country  possessed  of  all  the  means  which  this  country  possesses, 
was  in  duty  bound  to  bring  those  means  into  action,  and  to  unite 
in  one  common  interest  all  the  branches  of  useful  industry  of 
which  it  is  capable.  It  has  seemed  to  me,  that  our  prosperity  as 
a  nation  depended  on  this,  and  I  have  cheerfully  lent  my  aid  for 
this  purpose — not  the  advancement  of  any  one  interest,  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  others  ;  but  the  adjustment  of  a  proper  balance,  among 
all  the  several  branches  of  industry. 

"  At  the  last  session  of  Congress,  to  the  measures  of  which 
you  have  alluded,  it  did  seem  to  me,  that  an  important  crisis  in 
our  national  concerns  had  arrived — disunion  on  the  one  hand — 
destruction  on  the  other.  It  then  seemed  to  me,  that,  without 
abandoning  any  of  those  principles,  for  which  I  have  always  con- 
tended (for  I  have  never  changed  in  the  least  my  opinion  on  this 
subject),  a  compromise  was  the  only  way  in  which  these  great 
principles  could  be  secured.  And  it  is  highly  gratifying  to  me  to 
learn,  that  here,  and  in  the  country  generally — now  that  there  has 
been  time  to  reflect  on  the  subject,  and  properly  to  appreciate  the 
motives  with  which  the  measure  [the  compromise  act]  was  brought 
forward — that  the  bill  of  compromise,  suggested  upon  the  impulse 
of  the  moment,  has  met  with  such  general  approbation.  I  surely 
thought  it,  at  the  time,  the  only  thing  diat  could  be  done. 

"  You  say  right,  sir,  in  regard  to  my  wishes  to  avoid  all  public 
display,  on  ray  visit  to  my  friends  in  this  section  of  the  country. 
It  is  my  desire  to  travel  in  as  private  a  manner  as  possible,  and  to 
have  completed  the  objects  of  my  journey,  without  interrupting 
the  ordinary  pursuits  of  my  fellow-citizens.  But,  sir,  I  should 
do  injustice  to  myself,  and  should  not  be  possessed  of  the  feelings  of 
a  man,  did  I  not  say,  that  the  cordial  reception  with  which  1  have 
been  greeted,  in  this  and  many  other  places,  has  been  to  me  most 
gratifying.  These  expressions  of  kindness  from  my  fellow-citi- 
zens, will  long  have  a  place  among  my  most  cherished  recollec- 
tions. 

"  And  permit  me,  sir,  to  say  to  you,  and  through  you,  to  the 
citizens  of  this  town,  that  their  cordial  welcome  on  this  occasion 
will  long  be  remembered  by  me,  and  that  they  have  my  most  sin- 
cere and  ardent  wishes  for  a  continuance  of  their  present  pros- 
perity." 


350  MR.  clay's  eastern  tour  of  1833. 

In  Salem  also  INIr.  Clay's  reception  was  enthusiastic.  At  the 
Lyceum  in  the  evening,  on  the  occasion  of  an  ordinary  lecture, 
some  twelve  hundred  persons  being  present,  when  Mr.  Clay  en- 
tered, they  all  rose,  and  saluted  him  with  cheers.  In  reply  to  a 
welcome  tendered  him  on  his  arrival  in  that  town,  he  said,  among 
other  things  : — 

"  That  it  afforded  him  the  highest  gratification  it  was  possible 
for  him  to  feel ;  and  that  he  had  long  known  this  town  as  among 
the  first  in  promoting  the  welfare  of  the  whole  country  by  its  ex- 
tensive commerce,  bringing  from  other  climes  the  comforts  and 
luxuries  which  we  could  not  produce.  He  had  been  considered 
the  friend  of  one  particular  branch  of  industry  [manufactures], 
but  it  was  a  mistake  to  consider  him  the  friend  of  that  branch 
alone,  to  the  exclusion  of  agriculture  and  commerce." 

This  common  mistake  was  not  altogether  without  cause.  Agri- 
culture was  the  natural  pursuit  of  the  country,  especially  in  its 
early  history.  It  was  the  great  primary  interest,  and  naturally 
took  care  of  itself — grew  up  into  manhood  with  the  growth  of  the 
country — and  was  comparatively  impregnable.  Commerce,  as  its 
handmaid,  kept  company,  and  both  flourished  together.  But,  as 
no  nation  can  be  independent  without  manufactures,  and  as  these 
arts  always  belong  to  a  more  advanced  state  of  society — being 
arts — they  require  nurture  in  their  infancy,  and  training  in  after 
time,  till  they  shall  have  attained  a  maturity  and  vigor  capable  of 
taking  care  of  themselves.  They  can  not  start  without  aid,  nor 
become  independent  without  protection  ;  and  while  Mr.  Clay,  as 
a  wise  and  patriotic  statesman,  was  engaged  in  nurturing  this  ten- 
der plant,  some,  perhaps,  erroneously  concluded  that  he  had  less 
regard  for  those  great  interests  which  had  already  acquired  vigor 
and  independence.  It  was  only,  therefore,  doing  justice  to  him- 
self, to  say,  "  It  was  a  mistake  to  consider  him  the  friend  of  one 
branch  of  industry  alone."  But  a  sagacious  people  will  in  the 
end  appreciate  the  motives  of  such  a  statesman.  It  would  seem, 
from  the  reception  Mr.  Clay  everywhere  met  with  in  this  tour, 
that  his  views  and  purposes,  and  the  measures  he  advocated,  were 
well  appreciated. 

After  a  stay  of  about  two  weeks  in  Boston,  making  frequent  ex- 
cursions in  different  directions,  visiting  manufacturing  establish- 
ments, making  acquaintance  with  the  people  of  all  classes  and 
conditions,  daily  followed  by  the  multitudes  who  were  sensible  of 
the  value  of  his  public  services,  and  partaking  of  the  hospitalities 


MR.    clay's    eastern    TOUR    OF    1833.  361 

that  were  tendered,  Mr.  Clay  left  that  city  on  the  4th  of  Novem- 
ber, to  return.     The  Worcester  ^Egis  of  the  Sth  records,  that — 

"The  Hon.  Henry  Clay,  whose  name  has  been  a  household 
word  with  Americans  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  is  now  in  this  town. 
He  arrived  here  on  Monday  by  invitation  of  the  people  without  dis- 
tinction of  party,  and  was  escorted  to  his  lodgings  by  the  committee 
of  arrangements,  and  a  large  cavalcade  of  citizens.  Yesterday,  at  11 
o'clock,  he  met  the  citizens  generally  in  the  town-hall,  where  die 
Hon.  John  Davis,  in  their  behalf,  bade  him  welcome  to  Worcester, 
in  a  few  pertinent  remarks,  in  which  he  happily  alluded  to  the  prom- 
inent events  of  Mr.  Clay's  political  life — his  efforts  in  behalf  of  the 
government  during  the  dark  hour  of  our  second  war  of  indepen- 
dence, and  as  a  pacificator  at  its  close  ;  his  able  advocacy,  in  the 
halls  of  Congress,  of  the  cause  of  civil  liberty  in  Greece,  and 
among  the  struggling  republics  in  South  America ;  and  his  adop- 
tion and  maintenance,  on  the  same  theatre,  of  that  system  of  na- 
tional policy,  to  which  the  country,  in  a  great  measure,  owes  its 
present  prosperity. 

"  Mr.  Clay  replied  in  a  speech  of  half  an  hour,  which  was  fre- 
quendy  interrupted  by  spontaneous  bursts  of  applause.  We  have 
time  only  to  say,  that,  besides  other  topics  of  interest,  he  recapitu- 
lated tlie  facts  relating  to  his  compromise  bill  of  the  last  session  of 
Congress,  which  confirmed  the  opinion  we  had  previously  formed, 
that  the  origination  of  the  measure,  and  its  adoption  by  Congress, 
under  the  circumstances  then  existing,  showed  Mr.  Clay  to  be  one 
of  the  most  consummate  statesman  of  this  or  any  other  age.  Mr. 
Clay  said,  that  he  did  not  go  forward  with  that  measure,  without  a 
full  view  of  all  its  consequences.  He  saw  that  the  American  sys- 
tem would  be  utterly  prostrated  at  the  coming  session  of  Congress, 
unless  the  threatened  blow  could  be  averted  by  its  friends.  He 
saw  in  the  south  the  torch  already  lighted  to  destroy  the  Union  ; 
and  he  saw  also,  that  he  was  in  imminent  danger  of  losing  many 
of  his  personal  and  political  friends  ;  but  in  view  of  it  all,  he  in- 
quired, '  What  is  a  man  good  for,  if  he  will  not  risk  himself  for  his 
country  V  His  measure  was  carried,  and  his  anticipations  as  to 
its  beneficial  effects  are  fully  realized,  in  its  general  approval,  as 
allaying  the  dangers  that  threatened  the  country,  and  preserving 
substantially  the  system  of  policy,  which  he  had  ever  regarded  as 
of  paramount  importance  to  our  three  great  branches  of  labor — agri- 
culture, manufactures,  and  commerce." 

A  deputation  of  the  citizens  of  Hartford,  Connecticut,  waited 
on  Mr.  Clay  at  Worcester,  and  accompanied  him  to  that  city, 
whence,  after  two  days — having  in  the  meantime  received  the  hon- 
ors of  the  place,  well  appointed  and  bestowed,  and  addressed  the 
people  in  the  city-hall — he  proceeded  to  Springfield,  Massachu- 


352  MR.    clay's    eastern    tour    of    1833. 

setts,  where  he  was  received  with  a  national  salute,  and  a  numerous 
concourse  of  citizens  of  that  town  and  others.  In  the  evening,  at 
the  town-hall,  he  was  welcomed  to  the  hospitalities  of  Sprinofield, 
and  introduced  to  a  large  assemblage  of  ladies  and  gentlemen,  with 
a  pertinent  and  eloquent  recital  of  his  public  services,  by  Judo-e 
(Oliver  B.)  Morris,  to  which  Mr.  Clay  replied  in  a  short  speech, 
that  was  received  with  strong  marks  of  satisfaction  and  delight, 
being  frequently  interrupted  with  bursts  of  applause.  He  closed 
amid  the  deafening  cheers  of  the  audience.  While  at  Sprino-field, 
he  visited  the  public  works  and  the  Chickopee  factories. 

From  Springfield,  Mr.  Clay  next  visited  Northampton.  "  Curi- 
osity," says  the  Courier  of  that  town,  "  to  see  so  distinguished  a 
man — who  has  occupied  so  conspicuous  a  place  in  our  political 
history,  and  done  so  many  deeds  worthy  of  national  gratitude — 
was  not  small." 

In  passing  to  Pittsfield,  through  the  woollen-factory  village,  near 
Northampton,  the  operatives  came  out,  with  their  aprons  on,  to 
cheer  him  as  he  passed,  and  slyly  tossed  a  roll  of  fine  broadcloth 
into  his  carriage. 

At  Troy,  New  York,  on  being  presented  by  the  young  men  with 
a  superbly-mounted  and  highly-finished  rifle,  made  in  that  city, 
accompanied  with  an  address,  the  close  of  which  wished  him  a  long 
life  and  a  career  of  usefulness,  Mr.  Clay  replied  : — 

"  I  reciprocate  your  kind  wishes  of  a  long  life  and  a  career  of 
usefulness.  But,  my  young  friends,  it  is  known  to  you  all,  that 
long  life  is  not  for  the  aged.  In  the  course  of  human  nature,  we 
who  are  now  upon  the  stage,  must  soon  resign  the  bustle,  the  bur- 
den, and  the  cares  of  public  toil — of  upholding  our  republic,  and 
of  preserving  our  institutions  and  liberties.  They  are  a  precious 
inheritance,  and  have  been  handed  down  to  us  unimpaired  by  our 
fathers.  We,  in  turn,  will  soon  be  called  upon  to  hand  them  over 
to  you.  Upon  you,  then,  will  rest  all  these  responsibilities.  Let 
me,  therefore,  exhort  you — and  through  you,  all  with  whom 
you  stand  connected,  to  prepare  yourselves  by  your  devotion  to 
principles,  and  your  attachment  to  virtue  and  religion — to  guard 
THEM  WELL — SO  that,  when  you,  in  your  turn,  cast  off  this  'mor- 
tal coil,'  this  priceless  inheritance,  our  happy  institutions,  may  still 
pass  on  to  the  next  generation — and  from  generation  to  generation 
— pure  and  unimpaired." 

The  public  welcome  given  to  Mr.  Clay,  in  the  courthouse  of 
Troy,  by  an  address  from  the  mayor  of  the  city,  and  the  reply  of 
their  distinguished  guest,  constituted  one  of  the  most  interesting  and 


MR.    clay's    eastern    TOUR    OF    1833.  353 

instructive  occasions  of  Mr.  Clay's  tour.     Mr.  Clay  said,  in  con- 
clusion : — 

That  "  he  had  but  one  complaint  to  make — it  might  seem  very 
ungracious  for  one  who  had  received  so  much  kindness  to  com- 
plain— but  he  was  like  the  countryman  who  could  not  see  the 
tow7i,  because  there  were  so  many  houses:.  He  [Mr.  Clay]  had 
made  his  journey  to  see  the  country  and  its  improvements.  But 
the  people  would  not  let  him  see- anything  but  themselves." 

Mr.  Clay's  reception  at  Albany  was  worthy  of  the  place,  where 
they  drew  forth  a  speech  from  him,  by  presenting  him  a  cloak  that 
had  been  made  up  in  three  hours.  The  dignitaries  of  the  city  and 
of  the  state  waited  upon  him,  and  proffered,  not  an  empty  and 
heartless  hospitality,  but  a  cordial  welcome,  and  good  entertain- 
ment. The  masses  of  the  people  were  all  in  movement  to  do  him 
honor,  and  were  heard  as  well  as  seen. 

On  Mr.  Clay's  return  to  New  York,  he  visited  the  city  of  New- 
ark, New  Jersey,  renowned  for  wealth  created  by  its  manufacturing 
establishments,  where  all  were  emulous  to  do  him  honor,  which 
honored  themselves.  While  there,  Mr.  Clay  left  orders  for  a  car- 
riage. It  came  quicker  than  he  expected.  After  having  been  set 
down  at  his  hotel  in  New  York  in  the  evening,  from  a  new  carriage 
of  the  same  description  he  had  ordered,  drawn  from  Newark  by 
six  milk-white  steeds,  in  company  with  a  host  of  citizens.  General 
Darcy  made  a  brief  address,  and  asked  leave,  with  the  compliments 
of  the  citizens  of  Newark,  to  send  the  carriage  to  Ashland  for  Mrs. 
Clay.  The  generous  offer  took  Mr.  Clay  entirely  by  surprise.  He 
hesitated  in  receiving  a  present  so  valuable,  until  he  was  persuaded 
that  his  declining  its  acceptance  would  occasion  some  mortification 
to  his  Newark  friends.  Mr.  Clay  returned  to  Washington  at  the 
opening  of  Congress,  through  Philadelphia,  and  Wilmington,  Del- 
aware, at  which  places  he  was  honored  with  the  usual  greetings. 

In  a  note  from  Mr.  Clay  to  Judge  Brooke,  after  he  had  re- 
turned to  Washington,  dated  December  11,  1S33,  he  speaks  of 
the  agreeable  impressions  he  received  from  this  journey,  as  fol- 
lows : — 

"  My  journey  was  full  of  gratification.  In  spite  of  my  constant 
protestations,  that  it  was  undertaken  with  objects  of  a  private  na- 
ture exclusively,  and  my  uniformly  declining  public  dinners,  the 
people  everywhere — and  at  most  places  without  discrimination  of 
party — took  possession  of  me,  and  gave  enthusiastic  demonstra- 
tions of  respect,  attachment,  and  confidence.     In  looking  back  on 

Vol.  II.— 23 


354  MR.  clay's  eastern  tour  of  1833. 

the  scenes  through  which  I  passed,  they  seem  to  me  to  resemble 
those  of  enchantment,  more  than  real  life." 

Mr.  Clay  has  had  occasion  to  make  several  journeys,  north  and 
south,  during  his  public  life,  for  private  purposes  ;  in  all  of  which, 
it  was  equally  impossible  to  repress  demonstrations  of  popular  re- 
gard, as  in  this  of  1833,  which  may  be  taken  as  a  specimen  of  the 
whole. 

There  will  have  been  observed  several  allusions  in  this  chapter 
to  Mr.  Clay's  generous,  disinterested  patriotism — no  doubt  with 
perfect  sincerity.  There  is  one  form  in  which  this  character  is 
exemplified  in  Mr.  Clay's  history,  not  before  noticed  in  this  work, 
and  never  yet  observed  by  the  public,  because  the  evidence  is  of  a 
negative  character.  Eminent  as  Mr.  Clay  has  been,  long  as  was 
his  pubUc  life,  with  numberless  opportunities,  and  with  almost 
boundless  influence  for  such  purposes,  he  has  never  bestowed  an 
office,  nor  been  the  means  of  its  being  bestowed,  on  a  family  con- 
nexion, notwithstanding  those  connexions  have  been  numerous  ; 
and  at  this  time  Mr.  Clay  has  no  relation  or  connexion  holding 
any  office  whatever  under  the  government  of  the  United  States. 
This  is  not  an  accident,  but  the  result  of  principle ;  and  Mr.  Clay 
has  not  escaped  reproach  for  his  scrupulous  observance  of  this 
rule.  His  son-in-law,  Mr.  Duralde,  of  New  Orleans,  at  the  in- 
stance of  the  Louisiana  delegation  in  Congress,  and  without  any 
aid  from  Mr.  Clay,  was  appointed  in  1841  to  the  office  of  surveyor 
of  the  customs  ;  but  has  been  dismissed  by  President  Polk ! 
Every  one  will  see,  that  it  has  been  in  the  power  of  Mr.  Clay  to 
provide  for  every  family  connexion  living,  to  the  remotest  cousin  ; 
but  not  one  of  them  has  been  the  better  for  his  eminent  position 
and  commanding  influence. 


MR.  CLAY  AND  THE   TWENTY-SEVENTH  CONGRESS.        3-55 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

MR.    CLAY    AND    THE    TWENTY-SEVENTH    CONGRESS. 

General  Harrison's  Accession. — His  Death. — A  Vice-President  not  a  President.— 
The  Great  Apostate. — Proud  Position  of  a  Party  prostituted  by  a  Faithless 
Chief. — What  could  have  been  done. — One  good  thing  achieved. — Mr.  Clay's 
Position  in  the  Twenty-Seventh  Congress. — The  First  Act  of  Executive  Per- 
fidy.— The  Traitor  known  to  Some  before. — Notice  of  Mr.  Clay's  Speech  on  the 
Veto  of  the  Bank  Bill.— Mr.  Rives's  Reply.— Mr.  Clay's  Rejoinder.— Its  Over- 
lowering  Effect. 

When  General  William  Henry  Harrison  came  into  power, 
on  the  tide  of  the  great  political  revolution  of  1840,  with  a  strong 
majority  in  Congress,  it  was  expected,  that  the  policy  advocated 
by  the  party  would  be  carried  out.  To  begin  the  work  of  cor- 
recting the  errors  of  the  past,  and  laying  the  foundation  for  the 
future,  an  extra  session  of  Congress  was  immediately  convoked  by 
proclamation,  to  assemble  on  the  31st  of  May,  1841.  In  the 
meantime.  General  Harrison  died,  and  John  Tyler,  the  vice-pres- 
ident, succeeded  to  the  chair  of  chief  magistrate. 

By  courtesy,  Mr.  Tyler,  while  in  office,  was  usually  honored 
with  the  title  of  president;  but  it  will  be  seen,  from  the  nature  of 
the  case,  and  from  the  recognised  principles  of  such  official  rela- 
tions, that  he  could  not  be  president,  without  action  de  novo,  on 
the  part  of  the  authority  which  confers  the  appointment.  A  vice- 
presidency  and  a  lieutenancy  are  the  same  in  principle.  Although 
the  lieutenant,  in  the  absence,  or  death,  or  disqualification,  of  his 
principal,  succeeds  to  the  authority  and  functions  of  the  latter,  he 
is  not  CAPTAIN,  without  his  appointment  and  commission  as  such. 
The  meaning  of  the  word  will  show,  that  he  is  not  even  a  lieuten- 
ant IN  FACT,  till  he  succeeds  to  the  functions  and  authority  of  his 
principal;  for  how  can  a  man  fill  or  occupy  the  place  of  another, 
till  it  is  vacant?  Till  that  time,  his  office  lies  in  abeyance,  and  is 
merely  nominal ;  but,  being  in  service,  and  on  pay,  other  and  sub- 
ordinate functions  are  in  the  meantime  assigned  to  him.  It  is  the 
same  with  a  vice-president.     He  is  not  such  in  fact,  till  the 


356  MR.    CLAY    AND    THE 

office  of  his  principal  is  vacated.  Then  he  is  viCE-president,  and 
can  not  be  more,  without  an  appointment  and  commission.  An 
actual  Ueutenant,  or  an  actual  vice-president,  actually  holds  the 
place  of  his  principal.  He  is  then  a  vice,  not  before,  for  that 
would  be  impossible.  There  are  obvious  reasons  of  propriety, 
why  this  question — if  it  can  be  one — should  be  rightly  settled  in 
history,  apart  from  the  consent  of  mankind,  which  would  willingly 
exclude  from  the  highest  honors,  one  who  has  done  so  little  credit 
to  the  most  elevated  social  position. 

The  fidelity  of  history,  as  well  as  the  good  of  society,  require, 
that  public  men,  who  have  proved  faithless  in  their  relations,  should 
be  represented  according  to  the  facts.  As  there  is  but  one  opinion 
among  all  parties,  of  Mr.  Tyler's  conduct,  it  can  not,  perhaps,  be 
better  described,  than  in  the  terse  and  laconic  phrase  of  a  gifted 
gentleman,  who — when  he  read  the  letters  of  the  members  of  the 
retiring  cabinet,  in  the  early  part  of  September,  1841,  and  observed 
the  moral  turpitude  which  had  forced  them  to  fling  up  their  com- 
missions  in    disgust — exclaimed    impromptu:    "False    to    his 

COUNTRY,  FALSE  TO  HIS  FRIENDS,  FALSE  TO  HIMSELF,  HE 
STANDS  BEFORE  THE  NATION  BRANDED,  AS  WANTING  ALIKE  IN 
THE  DISINTERESTEDNESS  OF  A  PATRIOT,  THE  FIDELITY  OF  AN 
ASSOCIATE,  AND  THE   HONOR  OF  A   GENTLEAIAN." 

There  was  probably  never  an  instance  in  history,  where  infidel- 
ity in  the  social  relations  brought  so  little  advantage  to  the  offender, 
and  was  at  the  same  time  of  equally  momentous  consequences  to 
society.  Dragging  out  a  pitiable  official  existence ;  administering 
the  government,  not  for  his  country,  but  for  himself;  breaking  faith 
with  all  parties  and  all  men;  hoping  to  profit,  but  always  losing; 
ridiculed  by  the  fawners  that  pandered  to  his  vanity;  enacting 
farces  in  the  state  with  ludicrous  gravity;  setting  up  for  president, 
and  buying  supporters  with  the  funds  of  the  people ;  trusting  to 
luck,  that  helped  him  before,  and  fled  from  him  now;  selling  his 
party  and  his  country,  after  having  sold  himself;  with  increasing 
poverty  of  friends,  making  new  compacts  with  deceivers,  himself 
a  deceiver;  prodigally  wasting  the  bounties  of  patronage  on  rep- 
tiles waiting  to  bite  him,  and  offensive  to  all  mankind ;  the  only 
gladness  he  brought  to  the  nation,  was  in  the  act  of  his  retirement. 

Mr.  Tyler  came  to  power,  on  the  lamented  death  of  the  presi- 
dent, at  the  head  of  a  patriotic  party,  occupying  the  proudest  po- 
sition known  in  the  annals  of  history.  By  a  protracted  series  of 
suffering  and  calamity,  the  whole  nation  had  been  stirred  up  to  a 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    CONGRESS.  357 

sense  of  its  wrongs,  and  was  armed  widi  a  determination  to  have 
them  redressed.  The  path  was  cleared,  and  nothing  remained 
but  to  go  forward,  and  re-estabhsh  the  people  in  their  lost  pros- 
perity— TO  CONFIRM  IT  FOR  AGES.  The  tariff,  indeed,  which  had 
well-nigh  failed  by  the  obstacles  which  the  acting  president  reck- 
lessly threw  in  its  path,  was  a  great  redeeming  measure,  and  while 
enjoying  it's  blessings,  the  masses  of  the  people  are  not  likely  to 
see  what  else  was  necessary  to  render  the  system,  of  which  this 
was  only  a  part,  perfect.  The  whole  field  was  open,  and  the 
party  which  came  to  power  in  such  decided  popular  favor,  was 
entitled  to  a  full  and  fair  experiment  of  its  entire  system  of  policy, 
and  it  was  impossible  to  do  them  justice  without  it.  The  man 
who  deceived  those  who  trusted  in  him,  has  enjoyed  the  apparently 
congenial  satisfaction  of  subverting  the  great  designs  of  the  move- 
ment on  which,  as  a  subordinate,  he  came  into  place,  and  after- 
ward, by  an  unforeseen  event,  succeeded  to  supreme  authority. 

Mr.  Clay,  who  had  long  desired  to  retire  from  public  life,  main- 
tained his  post  during  the  whole  period  of  the  abuses  of  the  regal 
power  of  the  constitution,  battling  against  it,  and  defending  the 
rights  of  the  democratic  branch  of  the  government,  not  without 
success  in  resistance,  though  without  much  avail  in  arresting 
the  public  calamities  which  those  regal  pretensions  necessarily 
occasioned.  For  twelve  long  years  he  sustained  the  conflict, 
and  in  1840  realized  the  reward  of  his  protracted  labors,  in  wit- 
nessing the  triumph  of  his  principles.  One  duty  more  remained 
for  him  to  discharge — a  co-operation  with  the  twenty-seventh  Con- 
gress in  reconstructing  that  system  of  national  policy,  which  he 
had  so  long  advocated,  but  vi'hich  had  been  broken  down,  and  lay 
before  his  eye,  in  the  desolating  effects  of  its  overthrow,  a  heap  of 
ruins,  in  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land. 

In  the  progress  of  the  extra  session  of  Congress,  the  apostacy 
of  Mr.  Tyler  was  made  manifest,  and  his  first  public  and  official 
act  of  bad  faith,  was  the  veto  of  the  bank  bill. 

They  who  had  known  Mr.  Tyler  most  intimately  through  life, 
were  not  disappointed  in  this  development  of  his  character.  His 
first  address  to  the  people,  after  his  accession,  was  charitably  enter- 
tained, though  it  was  not  without  concern  that  sagacious  minds 
observed  its  weak  points,  and  they  were  starded  with  some  of  its 
expressions.  The  opening  message  at  the  extra  session,  was  still 
more  alarming,  for  the  air  of  magisterial  importance,  which  charac- 
terized it — so  unbecoming,  so  indecorous  in  one,  who,  by  a  mel- 


368  MR.    CLAY    AND    THE 

ancholy  event,  occupied  a  place  never  intended  for  him.  He  had 
evidently  made  up  his  mind  to  break  faith  with  his  party,  form  a 
new  one,  and  ride  into  power  in  1844,  as  president  elected  by  the 
people ;  and  he  only  waited  an  opportunity  for  the  rupture.  That 
moral  infirmity  for  which  he  was  so  remarkable,  had  left  him  open 
to  the  seductive  influences  of  two  or  three  unprincipled,  turbulent, 
factious  spirits,  who  obtained  his  ear,  flattered  his  self-esteem,  and 
set  before  him,  in  dazzling  and  captivating  colors,  his  power  and 
his  chances.  If  he  was  ever  capable  of  any  degree  of  fidelity, 
there  were  evidences  to  those  who  were  near,  that  ten  days  had 
not  elapsed,  after  General  Harrison's  death,  before  the  party,  to 
whom  he  was  indebted  for  his  power  to  injure  them,  were  doomed 
to  be  opposed  by  him,  and  if  possible,  divided  and  overthrown ; 
and  it  has  already  been  seen,  that  the  regal  power  of  the  constitu- 
tion is  capable  at  any  time  of  disappointing  the  public  will,  and 
that  it  puts  the  country  at  the  feet  of  the  chief  magistrate,  whoever 
and  whatever  he  may  be. 

The  twenty-seventh  Congress  had  undertaken  faithfully  to  dis- 
charge the  duties  for  which  they  were  appointed,  and  they  had 
scarcely  begun  to  act,  before  rumors,  not  ill-founded,  of  the  infi- 
delity of  the  acting  president,  were  constantly  reaching  their  ears, 
and  exciting  concern.  Having  repealed  the  sub-treasury,  it  was  a 
necessary  part  of  their  plan  to  erect  a  suitable  fiscal  agent  of  the 
government,  which  they  intended  to  endow  with  banking  powers, 
in  aid  of  the  currency.  It  was  when  this  measure  was  submitted 
to  Mr.  Tyler  for  his  approval,  that  he  embraced  the  opportunity  to 
strike  his  blow,  by  returning  it  with  his  veto. 

When  the  veto  message  came  up  for  consideration  in  the  senate, 
on  the  19th  of  August,  Mr.  Clay,-  after  a  few  introductory  remarks, 
relating  to  the  history  of  the  bill,  and  defining  his  own  position  in 
the  case,  said  : — 

"On  the  fourth  of  April  last,  the  lamented  Harrison,  the  presi- 
dent of  the  Unhed  States,  paid  the  debt  of  nature.  President 
Tyler,  who,  as  vice-president,  succeeded  to  the  duties  of  that 
office,  arrived  in  the  city  of  Washington,  on  the  sixth  of  that 
month.  He  found  the  whole  metropolis  wrapped  in  gloom,  every 
heart  filled  with  sorrow  and  sadness,  every  eye  streaming  with  tears, 
and  the  surrounding  hills  yet  flinging  back  the  echo  of  the  bells 
which  were  tolled  on  that  melancholy  occasion.  On  entering  the 
presidential  mansion,  he  contemplated  the  pale  body  of  his  prede- 
cessor stretched  before  him,  and  clothed  in  the  black  habiliments 
of  death.     At  that  solemn  moment,  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  heart 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    CONGRESS.  *359 

of  President  Tyler  was  overflowing  with  mingled  emotions  of 
grief,  of  patriotism,  and  of  gratitude — above  all,  of  gratitude  to 
that  country,  by  a  majority  of  whose  suffrages,  bestowed  at  the 
preceding  November,  he  then  stood  the  most  distinguished,  the 
most  elevated,  the  most  honored,  of  all  living  whigs  of  the  United 
States. 

"  It  was  under  these  circumstances,  and  in  this  probable  state 
of  mind,  that  President  Tyler,  on  the  tenth  day  of  the  same 
month  of  April,  voluntarily  promulgated  an  address  io  the  people 
of  the  United  States.  That  address  was  in  the  nature  of  a  coro- 
nation oath,  which  the  chief  of  the  state  in  other  countries,  and 
under  other  forms,  takes,  upon  ascending  the  throne.  It  referred 
to  the  solemn  obligations,  and  the  profound  sense  of  duty,  under 
which  the  new  president  entered  upon  the  high  trust  which  had 
devolved  upon  him,  by  the  joint  acts  of  the  people  and  of  Provi- 
dence, and  it  stated  the  principles,  and  delineated  the  policy,  by 
which  he  would  be  governed  in  his  exalted  station.  It  was  em- 
phatically a  whig  address,  from  beginning  to  end — every  inch  of 
it  was  whig,  and  was  patriotic. 

"  In  that  address  the  president,  in  respect  to  the  subject-matter 
embraced  in  the  present  bill,  held  the  following  conclusive  and 
emphatic  language  : — 

"  '  I  shall  iirompthj  give  my  sanction  to  any  constitutional  measure, 
which,  originating  in  Congress,  shall  have  for  its  object  the  resto- 
ration of  a  sound  circulating  medium,  so  esscntiahj  necessary  to 
give  confidence  in  all  the  transactions  of  life,  to  secure  to  industry 
its  just  and  adequate  reicards,  and  to  re-estahlish  the  imhlic  ijvos- 
perity.  In  deciding  upon  the  adaptation  of  any  such  measure  to 
the  end  proposed,  as  well  as  its  conformity  to  the  constitution,  I 
shall  resort  to  the  fathers  of  the  great  rejjublicati  school  for  advice 
and  instruction,  to  be  drawn  from  their  sage  views  of  our  system 
of  government,  and  the  light  of  their  ever-glorious  example.'' 

"  To  this  clause  in  the  address  of  the  president,  I  believe  but 
one  interpretation  was  given  throughout  this  whole  country,  by 
friend  and  foe,  by  whig  and  democrat,  and  by  the  presses  of  both 
parties.  It  was,  by  every  man  with  whom  I  conversed  on  the 
subject  at  the  time  of  its  appearance,  or  of  whom  I  have  since  in- 
quired, construed  to  mean  that  the  president  intended  to  occupy 
the  Madison  ground,  and  to  regard  the  question  of  the  power  to 
establish  a  national  bank  as  immovably  settled.  And  I  think  I 
may  confidently  appeal  to  the  senate  and  to  the  country,  to  sustain 
the  fact,  that  this  was  the  contemporaneous  and  unanimous  judg- 
ment of  the  public.  Reverting  back  to  the  period  of  the  promul- 
gation of  the  address,  could  any  other  construction  have  been 
given  to  its  language?  What  is  it?  'I  shall  promptly  give  my 
sanction  to  any  constitutional  measure,  which,  originating  in  Con- 
gress,'' shall  have  certain  defined  objects  in  view.     He  concedes 


360  MR.    CLAY    AND    THE 

the  vital  importance  of  a  sound  circulating  tnedium  to  industry, 
and  to  the  public  prosperity.  He  concedes  that  its  origin  must  be 
in  Congress.  And  to  prevent  any  interference  from  the  qualifica- 
tion, which  he  prefixes  to  the  measure,  being  interpreted  to  mean 
that  a  United  States  bank  was  unconstitutional,  he  declares,  that 
in  deciding  on  the  adaptation  of  the  measure  to  the  end  proposed, 
and  its  conformity  to  the  constitution,  he  will  resort  to  the  fathers 
of  the  great  republican  school.  And  who  were  they?  If  the 
father  of  his  country  is  to  be  excluded,  are  Madison  (the  father  of 
the  constitution),  Jefferson,  Monroe,  Gerry,  Gallatin,  and  the  long 
list  of  republicans  who  acted  with  them,  not  to  be  regarded  as 
among  those  fathers  ?  But  President  Tyler  declares,  not  only  that 
he  should  appeal  to  them  for  advice  and  instruction,  but  to  the 
light  of  their  ever-glorious  example.  What  example  ?  What 
other  meaning  could  have  been  possibly  applied  to  the  phrase,  than 
that  he  intended  to  refer  to  what  had  been  done  during  the  admin- 
istrations of  Jefferson,  Madison,  and  Monroe?" 

Mr.  Clay  having  put  the  interpretation  here  given  on  this  docu- 
ment— a  charitable  interpretation — proceeds  to  state  the  satisfaction 
it  had  afforded  him,  and  the  agreeable  feelings  with  which  he  came 
to  attend  the  extra  session.  He  then  alludes  to  the  rumors  that 
had  been  afloat,  and  the  influence  which  they  had  on  Congress,  in 
shaping  the  bill,  so,  if  possible,  as  to  escape  a  veto. 

"  Under  the  influence  of  that  spirit  [said  Mr.  Clay]  the  senate 
and  the  house  agreed,  first,  as  to  the  name  of  the  proposed  bank. 
1  confess,  sir,  that  there  was  something  exceedingly  outre  and 
revolting  to  my  ears,  in  the  term  '  fiscal  bank ;'  but  I  thought, 
'What  is  there  in  a  name?  A  rose  by  any  other  name  would 
smell  as  sweet.'  Looking,  therefore,  rather  to  the  utility  of  the 
substantial  faculties,  than  to  the  name  of  the  contemplated  institu- 
tion, we  consented  to  that  which  was  proposed." 

They  also  yielded  as  to  the  location  of  the  bank  at  Washington, 
and  as  to  the  branching  power,  sacrificing  their  own  choice  and 
judgment.     But,  said  Mr  Clay  : — 

"  Notwithstanding  all  our  concessions,  made  in  a  genuine  and 
sincere  spirit  of  conciliation,  the  sanction  of  the  president  could 
not  be  obtained,  and  the  bill  has  been  returned  by  him  with  his 
objections. 

"And  I  shall  now  proceed  to  consider  those  objections,  with  as 
much  brevity  as  possible,  but  with  the  most  perfect  respect,  official 
and  personal,  toward  the  chief  magistrate. 

"  After  stating  that  the  power  of  Congress  to  establish  a  national 
bank,  to  operate  per  sc,  has  been  a  controverted  question  from  the 
origin  of  the  government,  the  president  remarks  : — 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    CONGRESS.  361 

"  '  Men  most  justly  and  deservedly  esteemed  for  their  high  intel- 
lectual endowments,  their  virtue  and  their  patriotism,  have,  in  re- 
gard to  it,  entertained  different  and  conflicting  opinions.  Congresses 
have  differed.  The  approval  of  one  president  has  been  followed 
by  the  disapproval  of  another.' 

•'  From  this  statement  of  the  case  it  may  be  inferred,  that  the 
president  considers  the  weight  of  authority,  pro  and  con,  to  be 
equal  and  balanced.  But  if  he  intended  to  make  such  an  array 
of  it,  if  he  intended  to  say  that  it  was  an  equilibrium,  I  must  re- 
spectfully, but  most  decidedly,  dissent  from  him.  I  think  the  con- 
joint testimony  of  history,  tradition,  and  the  knowledge  of  living 
witnesses  proves  the  contrary.  How  stands  the  question  as  to  the 
opinions  of  Congresses?  The  Congress  of  1791,  the  Congress 
of  1S13-'14,  the  Congress  of  1S15-'16,  the  Congress  of  1831- 
'32,  and,  finally,  the  present  Congress,  have  all  respectively  and 
unequivocally,  affirmed  the  existence  of  a  power  in  Congress  to 
establish  a  national  bank  to  operate  per  se.  We  behold,  then,  the 
concurrent  opinion  of  five  different  Congresses  on  one  side.  And 
what  Congress  is  there  on  the  opposite  side  ?  The  Congress  of 
1811  ?  I  was  a  member  of  the  senate  in  that  year,  when  it  deci- 
ded, by  the  casting  vote  of  the  vice-president,  against  the  renewal 
of  the  charter  of  the  old  bank  of  the  United  States.  And  I  now 
here,  in  my  place,  add  to  the  testimony  already  before  the  public, 
by  declaring  that  it  is  within  my  certain  knowledge,  that  that  de- 
cision of  the  senate  xlid  not  proceed  from  a  disbelief  of  a  majority 
of  the  senate  in  the  power  of  Congress  to  establish  a  national 
bank,  but  from  combined  considerations  of  expediency  and  con- 
stitutionality. A  majority  of  the  senate,  on  the  contrary,  as  I 
know,  entertained  no  doubt  as  to  the  power  of  Congress.  Thus 
the  account,  as  to  Congresses,  stands  five  for,  and  not  one,  or,  at 
most,  not  more  than  one,  against  the  power. 

"Let  us  now  look  into  the  state  of  authority  derivable  from  the 
opinions  of  presidents  of  the  United  States.  President  Washing- 
ton believed  in  the  power  of  Congress,  and  approved  a  bank  bill. 
President  Jefferson  approved  acts  to  extend  branches  into  other 
parts  of  the  United  States,  and  to  punish  counterfeiters  of  the 
notes  of  the  bank — acts  which  were  devoid  of  all  justification, 
whatever,  upon  the  assumption  of  the  unconstitutionality  of  the 
bank.  For  how  could  branches  be  extended,  or  punishment  be 
lawfully  inflicted  upon  the  counterfeiters  of  the  paper  of  a  corpora- 
tion which  came  into  existence  without  any  authority,  and  in  viola- 
tion of  the  constitution  of  the  land  ?  James  Madison,  notwith- 
standing those  early  scruples  which  he  had  entertained,  and  which 
he  probably  still  cherished,  sanctioned  and  signed  a  bill  to  charter 
the  late  bank  of  the  United  States.  It  is  perfectly  well  known  that 
Mr.  Monroe  never  did  entertain  any  scruples  or  doubts  in  regard 
to  the  power  of  Congress.     Here,  then,  are  four  presidents  of  the 


362  MR.    CLAY    AND    THE 

United  States  who  have  directly  or  collaterally  borne  official  testi- 
mony to  the  existence  of  the  bank  power  in  Congress.  And  what 
president  is  there,  that  ever  bore  unequivocally  opposite  testimony — 
that  disapproved  a  bank  charter,  in  the  sense  intended  by  President 
Tyler  ?  General  Jackson,  although  he  did  apply  the  veto  power  to 
the  bill  for  rechartering  the  late  bank  of  the  United  States  in  lS-32, 
it  is  within  the  perfect  recollection  of  us  all,  not  only  testified  to 
the  utility  of  a  bank  of  the  United  States,  but  declared,  that,  if  he 
had  been  applied  to  by  Congress,  he  could  have  furnished  the  plan 
of  such  a  bank. 

"  Thus,  Mr.  President,  we  perceive,  that,  in  reviewing  the  ac- 
tion of  the  legislative  and  executive  departments  of  the  government, 
there  is  a  vast  preponderance  of  the  weight  of  authority  maintain- 
ing the  existence  of  the  power  in  Congress.  But  President  Tyler 
has,  I  presume  unintentionally,  wholly  omitted  to  notice  the  judg- 
ment and  decisions  of  the  third  co-ordinate  department  of  the 
government  upon  this  controverted  question — that  department, 
whose  interpretations  of  the  constitution,  within  its  proper  jurisdic- 
tion and  sphere  of  action,  are  binding  upon  all  ;  and  which,  there- 
fore, may  be  considered  as  exercising  a  controlling  power  over 
both  the  other  departments.  The  supreme  court  of  the  United 
States,  with  its  late  chief  justice,  the  illustrious  INIarshall,  at  its 
head,  unanimously  decided  that  Congress  possessed  this  bank 
power  ;  and  this  adjudication  was  sustained  and  reaffirmed  when- 
ever afterward  the  question  arose  before  the  court. 

"  After  recounting  the  occasions,  during  his  public  career,  on 
which  he  had  expressed  an  opinion  against  the  power  of  Congress 
to  charter  a  bank  of  the  United  States,  the  president  proceeds  to 
say  :— 

"  '  Entertaining  the  opinions  alluded  to,  and  having  taken  this 
oath,  die  senate  and  the  country  will  see  that  I  could  not  give  my 
sanction  to  a  measure  of  the  character  described,  without  surren- 
dering all  claim  to  the  respect  of  honorable  men — all  confidence 
on  the  part  of  the  people,  all  self-respect,  all  regard  for  moral  and 
religious  obligations  ;  without  an  observance  of  which  no  govern- 
ment can  be  prosperous,  and  no  people  can  be  happy.  It  would 
be  to  commit  a  crime,  which  I  would  not  wilfully  commit  to  gain 
any  earthly  reward,  and  which  would  Just  I  ij  subject  me  to  the  ridi- 
cule and  scorn  of  all  virtuous  men.' 

"  Mr.  President,  I  must  think,  and  hope  I  may  be  allowed  to 
say,  with  profound  deference  to  the  chief  magistrate,  that  it  appears 
to  me  he  has  viewed  with  too  lively  sensibility  the  personal  conse- 
quences to  himself  of  his  approval  of  the  bill ;  and  that,  surren- 
dering himself  to  a  vivid  imagination,  he  has  depicted  them  in 
much  too  glowing  and  exaggerated  colors,  and  ihtit  it  would  have 
been  most  happy,  if  he  had  looked  more  to  the  deplorable  conse- 
quences of  a  veto  upon  the  hopes,  the  interests,  and  the  happiness 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    CONGRESS.  363 

of  his  country.  Does  it  follow  that  a  magistrate  who  yields  his 
private  judgment  to  the  concurring  authority  of  numerous  decisions, 
repeatedly  and  deliberately  pronounced,  after  the  lapse  of  long  in- 
tervals, by  all  the  departments  of  government,  and  by  all  parties, 
incurs  the  dreadful  penalties  described  by  the  president?  Can 
any  man  be  disgraced  and  dishonored,  who  yields  his  private  opin- 
ion to  the  judgment  of  the  nation  t  In  this  case,  the  country  (I 
mean  a  majority),  Congress,  and,  according  to  common  fame,  a 
unanimous  cabinet,  were  all  united  in  favor  of  the  bill.  Should 
any  man  feel  himself  humbled  and  degraded  in  yielding  to  the 
conjoint  force  of  such  high  authority?  Does  any  man,  who  at 
one  period  of  his  life  shall  have  expressed  a  particular  opinion, 
and  at  a  subsequent  period  shall  act  upon  the  opposite  opinion,  ex- 
pose himself  to  the  terrible  consequences  which  have  been  por- 
trayed by  the  president  ?  How  is  it  with  the  judge,  in  the  case  by 
no  means  rare,  who  bows  to  the  authority  of  repeated  precedents, 
settling  a  particular  question,  while  in  his  private  judgment,  the 
law  was  otherwise  ?  How  is  it  with  that  numerous  class  of  public 
men  in  this  country,  and  with  the  two  great  parties  that  have  di- 
vided it,  who,  at  different  periods  have  maintained  and  acted  on 
opposite  opinions  in  respect  to  this  very  bank  question. 

"  How  is  it  with  James  INIadison,  the  father  of  the  constitution — 
that  great  man  whose  services  to  his  country  placed  him  only  sec- 
ond to  Washington  ;  whose  virtues  and  purity  in  private  life,  whose 
patriotism,  intelligence,  and  wisdom  in  public  councils,  stand  un- 
surpassed ?  He  was  a  member  of  the  national  convention  that 
formed,  and  of  the  Virginia  convention  that  adopted,  the  constitu- 
tion. No  man  understood  it  better  than  he  did.  He  was  opposed, 
in  1791,  to  the  establishment  of  the  bank  of  the  United  States, 
upon  constitutional  ground  ;  and,  in  1S16,  he  approved  and  signed 
the  charter  of  the  late  bank  of  the  United  States.  It  is  a  part  of 
the  secret  history  connected  with  the  first  bank,  that  James  Madi- 
son had,  at  the  instance  of  General  Washington,  prepared  a  veto 
for  him  in  the  contingency  of  his  rejection  of  the  bill.  Thus  stood 
James  Madison,  when,  in  1815,  he  applied  the  veto  to  a  bill  to 
charter  a  bank  upon  considerations  of  expediency,  but  with  a  clear 
and  express  admission  of  the  existence  of  a  constitutional  power 
of  Congress  to  charter  one.  In  181G,  the  bill  which  was  then 
presented  to  him  being  free  from  the  objections  applicable  to  that 
of  the  previous  year,  he  sanctioned  and  signed  it.  Did  James 
Madison  surrender  '  all  claim  to  the  respect  of  honorable  men,  all 
confidence  on  the  part  of  the  people,  all  self-respect,  all  regard  for 
moral  and  religious  obligations?'  Did  the  pure,  the  virtuous,  the 
gifted  James  Madison,  by  his  sanction  and  signature  to  the  char- 
ter of  the  late  bank  of  the  United  States,  commit  a  crime  which 
jastbj  subjected  him  '  to  the  ridicule  and  scorn  of  all  virtuous 
men?'" 


364  MR.    CLAY    AND    THE 

Mr.  Clay  next  proceeds  to  a  consideration  of  the  alternatives 
before  the  acting  president,  either  of  which  would  haye  been  hon- 
orable. "  Was  there  no  alternative,"  said  Mr.  Clay,  "but  to  pro- 
long the  sufferings  of  a  bleeding  country,  or  to  send  us  this  veto  ?" 
He  might,  in  the  first  place,  have  allowed  it  to  become  a  law  with- 
out his  signature.  Deferring  to  the  legislature,  and  to  other  au- 
thorities above  cited  by  Mr.  Clay,  and  declining  a  positive  oppo- 
sition to  the  wishes  of  the  country,  would  only  have  added  to  his 
credit.  Examples  of  this  kind  had  occurred,  with  beneficence  to 
the  public,  and  honor  to  the  parties.  Mr.  Madison's  positive  sur- 
render of  his  own  judgment,  and  signing  a  bank  bill,  never  injured 
him,  but  on  the  contrary  advanced  him  in  public  esteem.  It  was 
regarded  in  the  light  of  deference — was  in  fact  so.  It  may  be 
supposed  even  that  his  conscience  demanded  the  act.  Is  it  not 
right — is  it  not  often  a  duty,  and  of  course  a  conscientious  obliga- 
tion, to  doubt  one's  own  infallibility,  and  defer  to  eminent  author- 
ities ? 

"  If  it  were  possible  [said  Mr.  Clay]  to  disinter  the  venerated  re- 
mains of  James  Madison,  reanimate  his  perishing  form,  and  place  him 
once  more  in  that  chair  of  state,  which  he  so  much  adorned,  what 
would  have  been  his  course,  if  this  bill  had  been  presented  to  him,  even 
supposing  him  never  to  have  announced  his  acquiescence  in  the  set- 
tled judgment  of  the  nation  ?  He  would  have  said,  that  human 
controversy,  in  regard  to  a  single  question,  should  not  be  perpet- 
ual, and  ought  to  have  a  termination.  This,  about  the  power  to 
establish  a  bank  of  the  United  States,  has  been  long  enough  con- 
tinued. The  nation,  under  all  the  forms  of  its  public  action,  has 
often  and  deliberately  decided  it.  A  bank,  and  associated  finan- 
cial and  currency  questions,  which  had  long  slept,  were  revived, 
and  have  divided  the  nation  during  the  last  ten  years  of  arduous^ 
and  bitter  struggle  ;  and  the  party  which  put  down  the  bank,  and 
which  occasioned  all  the  disorders  in  our  currency  and  finances, 
has  itself  been  signally  put  down,  by  one  of  those  great  moral  and 
political  revolutions  which  a  free,  a  patriotic  people  can  but  sel- 
dom arouse  itself  to  make.  Human  infallibility  has  not  been 
granted  by  God  ;  and  the  chances  of  erroi'  are  much  greater  on 
the  side  of  one  man,  than  on  that  of  the  majority  of  a  whole  people 
and  their  successive  legislatures  during  a  long  period  of  time.  I 
yield  to  the  irresistible  force  of  authority.  I  will  not  put  myself 
in  opposition  to  a  measure  so  imperatively  demanded  by  the  pub- 
lic voice,  and  so  essential  to  elevate  my  depressed  and  suffering 
countrymen. 

"  And  wliy  should  not  President  Tyler  have  suffered  the  bill 
to  become  a  law  without  his  signature  ?     Without  meaning  the 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    CONGRESS.  365 

slightest  possible  disrespect  to  him  (nothing  is  further  from  my 
heart  than  the  exhibition  of  any  such  feehng  toward  that  distin- 
guished citizen,  long  my  personal  friend),  it  can  not  be  forgotten, 
that  he  came  into  his  present  office  under  peculiar  circumstances. 
The  people  did  not  foresee  the  contingency  which  has  happened. 
They  voted  for  him  as  vice-president.  They  did  not,  therefore, 
scrutinize  his  opinions  with  the  care  which  they  probably  ought  to 
have  done,  and  would  have  done,  if  they  could  have  looked  into 
futurity.  If  the  present  state  of  the  fact  could  have  been  antici- 
pated— if  at  Harrisburg,  or  at  the  polls,  it  had  been  foreseen,  that 
General  Harrison  would  die  in  one  short  month  after  the  com- 
mencement of  his  administration ;  that  Vice-President  Tyler 
would  be  elevated  to  the  presidential  chair  ;  that  a  bill,  passed  by 
decisive  majorities  of  the  first  whig  Congress,  chartering  a  national 
bank,  would  be  presented  for  his  sanction,  and  that  he  would  veto 
the  bill,  do  I  hazard  anything,  when  I  express  the  conviction,  that 
he  would  not  have  received  a  solitary  vote  in  the  nominating  con- 
vention, nor  one  solitary  electoral  vote  in  any  state  in  the  Union  ? 

"  Shall  I  be  told  that  the  honor,  the  firmness,  the  independence 
of  the  chief  magistrate  might  have  been  drawn  in  question  if  he 
had  remained  passive,  and  so  permitted  the  bill  to  become  a  law? 
1  answer,  that  the  office  of  chief  magistrate  is  a  sacred  and  exalted 
trust,  created  and  conferred  for  the  benefit  of  the  nation,  and  not 
for  the  private  advantage  of  the  person  who  fills  it.  Can  any 
man's  reputation  for  firmness,  independence,  and  honor,  be  of 
more  importance  than  the  welfare  of  a  great  people  ?  There  is 
nothing,  in  my  humble  judgment,  in  such  a  course,  incompatible 
with  honor,  with  firmness,  with  independence,  properly  understood. 
Certainly,  I  most  respectfully  think,  in  reference  to  a  measure  like 
this,  recommended  by  such  high  sanctions — by  five  Congresses, 
by  the  authority  of  four  presidents,  by  repeated  decisions  of  the 
supreme  court,  by  the  acquiescence  and  judgment  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States  during  long  periods  of  time,  by  its  salutary 
operation  on  the  interests  of  the  community  for  a  space  of  forty 
years,  and  demanded  by  the  people  whose  suffrages  placed  Presi- 
dent Tyler  in  that  second  office  whence  he  was  translated  to 
the  first  that  he  might  have  suppressed  the  promptings  of  all  per- 
sonal pride  of  private  opinion,  if  any  arose  in  his  bosom,  and 
yielded  to  the  wishes  and  wants  of  his  country.  Nor  do  I  believe, 
that,  in  such  a  course,  he  would  have  made  the  smallest  sacrifice, 
in  a  just  sense,  of  personal  honor,  firmness,  or  independence. 

"  But,  sir,  there  was  still  a  third  alternative,  to  which  I  allude, 
not  because  I  mean  to  intimate  that  it  should  be  embraced,  but  be- 
cause I  am  reminded  of  it  by  a  memorable  event  in  the  life  of 
President  Tyler.  It  will  be  recollected,  that,  after  the  senate  had 
passed  the  resolutions  declaring  the  removal  of  the  public  depos- 
ites  from  the  late  bank  of  the  United  States  to  have  been  deroga- 


366  MR.    CLAY    AND    THE 

tory  to  the  constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States,  for  which 
resolution,  President,  then  Senator  Tyler,  had  voted,  the  general 
assembly  of  Virginia  instructed  the  senators  from  that  state  to  vote 
for  the  expunging  of  that  resolution.  Senator  Tyler  declined 
voting  in  conformity  with  that  instruction,  and  resigned  his  seat  in 
the  senate  of  the  United  States.  This  he  did  because  he  could 
not  conform,  and  did  not  think  it  right  to  go  counter  to  the  wishes 
of  those  who  had  placed  him  in  the  senate.  If,  when  the  people 
of  Virginia,  or  the  general  assembly  of  Virginia,  were  his  only 
constituency,  he  would  not  set  up  his  own  particular  opinion,  in 
opposition  to  theirs,  what  ought  to  be  the  rule  of  his  conduct 
when  the  people  of  twenty-six  states — a  whole  nation — compose 
his  constituency  ?  Is  the  will  of  the  constituency  of  one  state  to 
be  respected,  and  that  of  twenty-six  to  be  wholly  disregarded  ? 
Is  obedience  due  only  to  the  single  state  of  Virginia  ?  The  pres- 
ident admits,  that  the  bank  question  deeply  agitated,  and  continues 
to  agitate  the  nation.  It  is  incontestable,  that  it  was  the  great,  ab- 
sorbing, and  controlling  question,  in  all  our  recent  divisions  and 
exertions.  I  am  firmly  convinced,  and  it  is  my  deliberate  judg- 
ment, that  an  immense  majority,  not  less  than  two  thirds  of  the 
nation,  desire  such  an  institution.  All  doubts  in  this  respect  ought 
to  be  dispelled,  by  the  recent  decisions  of  the  two  houses  of  Con- 
gress. I  speak  of  them  as  evidence  of  popular  opinion.  In  the 
house  of  representatives  the  majority  was  o?}e  hundred  and  thirty- 
one  to  one  hundred.  If  the  house  had  been  full,  and  but  for  the 
modification  of  the  sixteenth  fundamental  condition,  there  would 
have  been  a  probable  majority  of  forty-seven.  Is  it  to  be  believed 
that  this  large  majority  of  the  immediate  representatives  of  the  peo- 
ple, fresh  from  among  them,  and  to  whom  the  president  seemed 
inclined,  in  his  opening  message,  to  refer  this  very  question,  have 
mistaken  the  wishes  of  their  constituents  ?" 

Mr.  Clay,  notable  as  the  author  of  compromises  in  difficult, 
some  of  them  momentous  public  emergencies,  had  caused  a  com- 
promise to  be  introduced  in  this  bill,  regarding  the  branching  pow- 
er, which  was  obnoxious  to  many  of  its  supporters,  but  tolerated 
in  anticipation  of  this — which  may  now  be  safely  called — quibble 
of  conscience  in  the  acting  president.  It  was  known  that  he  was 
disposed  to  make  difficulty,  and  every  possible  pains  was  taken  to 
avoid  it.  He  wanted  to  quarrel  with  Mr.  Clay ; — for  what  hope 
could  he  have  for  the  attainment  of  his  ambitious  object,  while 
Mr.  Clay  was  in  his  path  ?  He  therefore  fell  with  great  harshness, 
with  rudeness,  on  this  very  clause  of  compromise  in  the  bill,  which 
was  put  in  for  the  beneficent  purpose  of  removing  objections. 
"  This  IRON  rule  is  to  give  way  to  no  circumstance — it  is  unbend- 
ing and  inflexible.     It  is  the  language  of  the  master  to  the  vassal. 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    CONGRESS.  367 

An  unconditional  answer  is  claimed  forthtvith.^^  After  such  an 
assault  on  an  act  originating  in  a  purpose  so  kind,  it  would  require 
much  charity  to  expect  good  from  that  quarter.  And  the  assault 
was  iKTsonal,  the  author  of  this  part  of  the  bill  being  known. 
There  was  other  harsh  language  in  the  message  on  this  point. 
"  Now,  Mr.  President  [said  Mr.  Clay],  I  will  not  ask  whether 
these  animadversions  were  prompted  with  a  reciprocal  spirit  of 
amity  and  kindness,  but  I  inquire  whether  all  of  them  were  per- 
fectly just?"  Mr.  Clay  shows — as  is  inherently  obvious — that 
they  were  very  unjust.  The  hypotheses  erected  by  the  acting 
president  are  extreme  cases,  which  fall  to  the  ground  by  the  mere 
suggestion  of  the  opposite  extremes.  "  Extreme  cases,"  says 
Mr.  Clay,   "  should  never  be  resorted  to." 

"  The  president,  I  think,  ought  to  have  seen,  in  the  form  and 
language  of  the  proviso,  the  spirit  of  conciliation  in  which  it  was 
drawn,  as  I  know.  It  does  not  assert  the  power ;  it  employs  the 
language  of  the  constitution  itself,  leaving  every  one  free  to  inter- 
pret that  language  according  to  his  own  sense  of  the  instrument. 

"  Why  was  it  deemed  necessary  to  speak  of  its  being  '  the  lan- 
guage of  the  master  to  the  vassal,'  of  '  this  iron  rule,'  that  '  Congress 
wills,  and  submission  is  demanded  ?'  What  is  this  whole  federal 
government  but  a  mass  of  powers  abstracted  from  the  sovereignty 
of  the  several  states,  and  wielded  by  an  organized  government  for 
their  common  defence  and  general  welfare,  according  to  the  grants 
of  the  constitution?  These  powers  are  necessarily  supreme;  the 
constitution,  the  acts  of  Congress,  and  treaties  being  so  declared  by 
the  express  words  of  the  constitution.  Whenever,  therefore,  this 
government  acts  within  the  powers  granted  to  it  by  the  constitu- 
tion, submission  and  obedience  are  due  from  all — from  states  as 
well  as  from  persons.  And  if  this  present  the  image  of  a  master 
and  a  vassal,  of  state  subjection  and  congressional  domination,  it 
is  the  constitution,  created  or  consented  to  by  the  states,  that 
ordains  these  relations.  Nor  can  it  be  said,  in  the  contingency 
supposed,  that  an  act  of  Congress  has  repealed  an  act  of  state 
legislation.  Undoubtedly  in  case  of  a  conflict  between  a  state 
constitution  or  state  law,  and  the  constitution  of  the  United  States, 
or  an  act  of  Congress  passed  in  pursuance  of  it,  the  state  consti- 
tution or  state  law  would  yield.  But  it  could  not,  at  least,  be  for- 
mally or  technically  said,  that  the  state  constitution  or  law  was 
repealed.  Its  operation  would  be  suspended  or  abrogated  by  the 
necessary  predominance  of  the  paramount  authority. 

"  I  understand  that  some  of  our  friends  are  now  considering  the 

a 

practicability  of  arranging  and  passing  a  bill  in  conformity  with  the 
views  of  President  Tyler  ?     While  I  regret  that  I  can  take  no 


36S  MR.    CLAV    AND    THE 

active  part  in  such  an  experiment,  and  must  reserve  to  myself  the 
right  of  determining,  whether  I  can  or  can  not  vote  for  such  a  bill 
after  I  see  it  in  its  matured  form,  I  assure  my  friends  that  they 
shall  find  no  obstacle  or  impediment  in  me.  On  the  contrary,  I 
say  to  them,  go  on — God  speed  you  in  any  measure  which  will 
serve  the  country,  and  preserve  or  restore  harmony  and  concert 
between  the  departments  of  government.  An  executive  veto  of  a 
bank  of  the  United  States,  after  the  sad  experience  of  late  years, 
is  an  event  which  was  not  anticipated  by  the  political  friends  of 
the  president — certainly  not  by  me.  But  it  has  come  upon  us 
with  tremendous  weight,  and  amid  the  greatest  excitement  within 
and  without  the  metropolis.  The  question  now  is,  what  shall  be 
done?  What,  under  this  most  embarrassing  and  unexpected  state 
of  things,  will  our  constituents  expect  of  us  ?  What  is  required 
by  the  duty  and  the  dignity  of  Congress  ?  I  repeat,  that  if,  after 
a  careful  examination  of  the  executive  message,  a  bank  can  be 
devised  which  will  afford  any  remedy  to  existing  evils,  and  secure 
the  president's  approbation,  let  the  project  of  such  a  bank  be  pre- 
sented. It  shall  encounter  no  opposition,  if  it  should  receive  no 
support,  from  me. 

"  But  what  further  shall  we  do?  Never,  since  I  have  enjoyed 
the  honor  of  participating  in  the  public  councils  of  the  nation,  a 
period  now  of  nearly  thirty-five  years,  have  I  met  Congress  under 
more  happy  or  more  favorable  auspices.  Never  have  I  seen  a 
house  of  representatives  animated  by  more  patriotic  dispositions — 
more  united,  more  determined,  more  business-like.  Not  even 
that  house  which  declared  war  in  18J2,  nor  that  which,  in  1815- 
'16,  laid  broad  and  deep  foundations  of  national  prosperity,  in 
adequate  provisions  for  a  sound  currency,  by  the  establishment  of 
a  bank  of  the  United  States,  for  the  payment  of  the  national  debt, 
and  for  the  protection  of  American  industry.  This  house  has 
solved  the  problem  of  the  competency  of  a  large  deliberative  body 
to  transact  the  public  business.  If  happily  there  had  existed  a 
concurrence  of  opinion  and  cordial  cooperation  between  the  differ- 
ent departments  of  the  government,  and  all  the  members  of  the 
party,  we  should  have  carried  every  measure  contemplated  at  the 
extra  session,  which  the  people  had  a  right  to  expect  from  our 
pledges,  and  should  have  been,  by  this  time,  at  our  respective 
homes.  We  are  disappointed  in  one,  and  an  important  one,  of 
that  series  of  measures  ;  but  shall  we  therefore  despair  ?  Shall  we 
abandon  ourselves  to  unworthy  feelings  and  sentiments  ?  Shall  we 
allow  ourselves  to  be  transported  by  rash  and  intemperate  passions 
and  counsels?  Shall  we  adjourn,  and  go  home  in  disgust?  No  ! 
No  !  No  !  A  higher,  nobler,  and  more  patriotic  career  lies  before 
us.  Let  us  here,  at  the  east  end  of  Pennsylvania  avenue,  do  our 
duty,  our  whole  duty,  and  nothing  short  of  our  duty,  toward  our 
common   country.      We   have   repealed   the   sub-treasury.      We 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    CONGRESS.  369 

have  passed  a  bankrupt  law — a  beneficent  measure  of  substantial 
and  extensive  relief.  Let  us  now  pass  the  bill  for  the  distribution 
of  the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands,  the  revenue  bill,  and  the  bill 
for  the  benefit  of  the  oppressed  people  of  this  district.  Let  us  do 
all,  let  us  do  everything  we  can  for  the  public  good.  If  we  are 
finally  to  be  disappointed  in  our  hopes  of  giving  to  the  country  a 
bank,  which  will  once  more  supply  it  with  a  sound  currency, 
still  let  us  go  home  and  tell  our  constituents,  that  we  did  all  that 
we  could  under  actual  circumstances  ;  and  that,  if  we  did  not 
carry  every  measure  for  their  relief,  it  was  only  because  to  do  so 
was  impossible.  If  nothing  can  be  done  at  this  extra  session,  to 
put  upon  a  more  stable  and  satisfactory  basis  the  currency  and 
exchanges  of  the  country,  let  us  hope  that  hereafter  some  way  will 
be  found  to  accomplish  that  most  desirable  object,  either  by  an 
amendment  of  the  constitudon,  limidng  and  qualifying  the  enor- 
mous executive  power,  and  especially  the  veto,  or  by  increased 
majorities  in  the  two  houses  of  Congress,  competent  to  the  passage 
of  wise  and  salutary  laws,  the  president's  objections  notwithstand- 
ing." 

The  Hon.  Wm.  C.  Rives,  of  Virginia,  replied  to  Mr.  Clay,  in 
defence  of  the  acting  president,  the  unjustness  of  which  could 
hardly  be  accounted  for,  except  by  the  supposition,  that  the  honor- 
able senator  had  'prepared  his  remarks,  in  anticipation  of  what  Mr. 
Clay  would  probably  say,  and  was  somewhat  hampered  in  adapting 
them  to  what  he  did  say.  Mr.  Clay  was  obliged — a  thing  very 
unusual  with  him — frequently  to  interrupt  and  correct  him  ;  and 
he  did  not  think  of  rejoining,  till  Mr.  Rives  sat  down,  and  a  sen- 
ator at  Mr.  Clay's  elbow,  jogged  him,  and  said  :  "  You  must 
answer  that."  It  is  usual  for  a  member  of  a  deliberative  body, 
when  he  thinks  of  a  reply,  to  take  notes.  On  this  occasion  Mr. 
Clay  had  taken  none,  and  rose  at  the  prompting  above  stated,  and 
made  one  of  the  most  eloquent  speeches  of  his  life: — 

"I  have  no  desire,"  said  Mr.  Clay,  "to  prolong  this  unpleas- 
ant discussion  ;  but  I  must  say  that  I  heard  with  great  surprise  and 
regret  the  closing  remark,  especially,  of  the  honorable  gentleman 
from  Virginia,  as,  indeed,  I  did  many  of  those  which  preceded  it. 
That  gentleman  stands  in  a  peculiar  situation.  I  found  him  sev 
eral  years  ago  in  the  half-way  house,  where  he  seems  afraid  to  re- 
main, and  from  which  he  is  yet  unwilling  to  go.  I  had  thought, 
after  the  thorough  riddling  which  the  roof  of  the  house  had  re- 
ceived in  the  breaking  up  of  the  pet-bank  system,  he  would  have 
fled  somewhere  else 'for  refuge;  but  there  he  still  stands,  solitary 
and  alone,  shivering  and  pelted  by  the  piuless  storm.  The  sub- 
treasury  is  repealed ;    the    pet-bank  system   is   abandoned  ;    the 

Vol.  II.— 24 


370  MR.    CLAY    AND    THE 

United  States  bank  bill  is  vetoed  ;  and  now,  when  there  is  as  com- 
plete and  perfect  a  reunion  of  the  purse  and  the  sword  in  the  hands 
of  the  executive  as  ever  there  was  under  General  Jackson  or  Mr. 
Van  Buren,  the  senator  is  for  doing  nothing!  The  senator  is  for 
going  home,  leaving  the  treasury  and  the  country  in  their  lawless 
condition  !  Yet  no  man  has  heretofore,  more  than  he  has,  de- 
plored and  deprecated  a  state  of  things  so  utterly  unsafe,  and  re- 
pugnant to  all  just  precautions,  indicated  alike  by  sound  theory  and 
experience  in  free  governments.  And  the  senator  talks  to  us  about 
applying  to  the  wisdom  of  practical  men,  in  respect  to  banking, 
and  advises  further  deliberation  !  Why,  I  should  suppose  that  we 
are  at  present  in  the  very  best  situation  to  act  upon  the  subject. 
Besides  the  many  painful  years  we  have  had  for  deliberation,  we 
have  been  near  three  months  almost  exclusively  engrossed  with 
the  very  subject  itself.  We  have  heard  all  manner  of  facts,  state- 
ments, and  arguments,  in  any  way  connected  with  it.  We  under- 
stand, it  seems  to  me,  all  we  ever  can  learn  or  comprehend  about 
a  national  bank.  And  we  have,  at  least,  some  conception  too 
of  what  sort  of  one  will  be  acceptable  at  the  other  end  of  the  av- 
enue. Yet  now,  with  a  vast  majority  of  the  people  of  the  entire 
country  crying  out  to  us  for  a  bank ;  with  the  people  throughout 
the  whole  valley  of  the  Mississippi  rising  in  their  majesty,  and  de- 
manding it  as  indispensable  to  their  well-being,  and  pointing  to 
their  losses,  their  sacrifices,  and  their  sufferings,  for  the  want  of 
such  an  institution  ;  in  such  a  state  of  things,  we  are  gravely  and 
coldly  told  by  the  honorable  senator  from  Virginia,  that  we  had 
best  go  home,  leaving  the  purse  and  the  sword  in  the  uncontrolled 
possession  of  the  president,  and  above  all  things,  never  to  make  a 
party  bank  !  Why,  sir,  does  he,  with  all  his  knowledge  of  the 
conflicting  opinions  which  prevail  here,  and  have  prevailed,  believe 
that  we  ever  can  make  a  bank  but  by  the  votes  of  one  party  who 
are  in  favor  of  it,  in  opposition  to  the  votes  of  another  party  against 
it  ?  I  deprecate  this  expression  of  opinion  from  that  gentleman 
the  more,  because,  aUhough  the  honorable  senator  professes  not  to 
know  the  opinions  of  the  president,  it  certainly  does  turn  out  in  the 
sequel,  that  there  is  a  most  remarkable  coincidence  between  those 
opinions  and  his  own  ;  and  he  has,  on  the  present  occasion,  de- 
fended the  motives  and  the  course  of  the  president  with  all  the  so- 
licitude and  all  the  fervent  zeal  of  a  member  of  his  pn'?']/  conncil. 
There  is  a  rumor  abroad,  that  a  cabal  exists — a  new  sort  of  kitchen 
cabinet — whose  object  is  the  dissolution  of  the  regular  cabinet,  the 
dissolution  of  the  whig  party,  the  dispersion  of  Congress  without 
accomplishing  any  of  the  great  purposes  of  the  extra  session,  and 
a  total  change,  in  fact,  in  the  whole  face  of  our  political  affairs.  I 
hope,  and  I  persuade  myself,  that  the  honorable  senator  is  not,  can 
not  be,  one  of  the  component  members  of  such  a  cabal;  but  I 
must  say,  that  there  has  been  displayed  by  the  honorable  senator 


V  V 

TWENTY-SEVENTH   CONGRESS.  37] 

to-day,  a  predisposition,  astonishing  and  inexplicable,  to  miscon- 
ceive almost  all  of  what  I  have  said,  and  a  perseverance,  after  re- 
peated corrections,  in  misunderstanding — for  I  will  not  charge  him 
with  wilfully  and  intentionally  misrepresenting — the  whole  spirit 
and  character  of  the  address  which,  as  a  man  of  honor,  and  as  a 
senator,  I  felt  myself  bound  in  duty  to  make  to  this  body. 

"  The  senator  begins  with  saying  that  I  charge  the  president  with 
*  perfidy!'  Did  I  use  any  such  language?  I  appeal  to  every 
gentleman  who  heard  me,  to  say  whether  I  have,  in  a  single  in- 
stance, gone  beyond  a  fair  and  legitimate  examination  of  the  exec- 
utive objections  to  the  bill.  Yet  he  has  charged  me  with  '  arraign- 
ing' the  president,  with  indicting  him  in  various  counts,  and  with 
imputing  to  him  motives  such  as  I  never  even  intimated  or 
dreamed  ;  and  that,  when  I  was  constantly  expressing,  over  and 
over,  my  personal  respect  and  regard  for  President  Tyler,  for 
whom  I  have  cherished  an  intimate  personal  friendship  of  twenty 
years'  standing,  and  while  I  expressly  said,  that  if  that  friendship 
should  now  be  interrupted,  it  should  not  be  my  fault !  Why,  sir, 
what  possible,  what  conceivable  motive  can  I  have  to  quarrel  with 
the  president,  or  to  break  up  the  whig  party  ?  What  earthly  mo- 
tive can  impel  me  to  wish  for  any  other  result  than  that  that  party 
shall  remain  in  perfect  harmony,  undivided,  and  shall  move  undis- 
mayed, boldly  and  unitedly  forward  to  the  accomplishment  of  the 
all-important  public  objects  which  it  has  avowed  to  be  its  aim  ? 
What  imaorinable  interest  or  feeling;  can  I  have  other  than  the  sue- 
cess,  the  triumph,  the  glory  of  the  whig  party?  But  that  there 
may  be  designs  and  purposes  on  the  part  of  certain  other  individ- 
uals to  place  me  in  inimical  relations  with  the  president,  and  to 
represent  me  as  personally  opposed  to  him,  I  can  well  imagine — 
individuals  who  are  beating  up  for  recruits,  and  endeavoring  to 
form  a  third  party,  with  materials  so  scanty  as  to  be  wholly  insufH- 
cient  to  compose  a  decent  corporal's  guard." 

The  words  "  corporaFs  guard,''''  dropping  from  the  lips  of  Mr. 
Clay  on  this  occasion,  will  for  ever  adhere  to  some  half  dozen 
members  of  the  twenty-seventh  Congress,  of  which  gallant  and  re- 
nowned corps',  Caleb  Cushing,  of  Massachusetts,  Henry  A.  Wise, 
of  Virginia,  and  George  H.  Proffit,  of  Indiana,  were  members,  and 
distinguished  themselves  in  fighting  the  battles  of  "Captain  Tyler," 
as  he  was  generally  termed,  for  like  reasons.  These  gentlemen, 
together  with  Mr.  Gilmer,  of  Virginia,  and  one  or  two  others,  did 
valiant  service  for  the  "  captain,"  on  the  floor  of  the  house  of  repre- 
sentatives. More  fortunate  than  most  of  those  who  trusted  in  this 
perfidious  man,  "the  guard"  were  rewarded.  Mr.  Gilmer 
was  made  secretary  of  the  navy,  and  afterward  killed  at  the  burst- 
ing of  Captain  Stockton's  big  gun  on  board  the  Princeton.     Mp 


372  MR.    CLAY    AND    THE 

Gilmer  had  been  governor  of  Virginia,  was  a  man  of  excellent 
character,  of  exemplary  manners,  and  highly  respected.  His  per- 
sonal worth  carried  him  through  the  senate,  to  the  head  of  the 
navy  department,  notwithstanding  the  objection  to  his  position  as  a 
member  of  "  the  guard" — in  which  service,  however,  he  was 
moderate,  and  always  sustained  his  character  of  a  gentleman. 
There  was  a  universal  sympathy  at  the  manner  of  his  death.  Mr. 
Proffit  was  packed  off,  in  a  recess  of  Congress,  as  minister  to 
Brazil,  before  his  name  was  sent  into  the  senate — probably  with 
the  expectation  of  having  leave  to  return,  when  the  senate  should 
deliver  their  opinion.  He  was  not  disappointed.  Mr.  Gushing 
was  presented  to  the  senate  for  secretary  of  the  treasury,  and  Mr. 
Wise  for  minister  to  France,  and  were  each  of  them  rejected  three 
times  in  one  night's  session  (March  3,  1843),  the  acting  president 
having  sent  back  their  names,  apparently  to  force  them  on  the  sen- 
ate. But  the  regal  power,  in  this  instance,  did  not  avail.  The 
votes  at  each  time  were  as  follows  :  For  Mr.  Wise — first  vote,  24 
to  12  ;  second  vote,  26  to  8 ;  third  vote,  29  to  2.  For  Mr.  Gush- 
ing— first  vote,  27  to  19  ;  second  vote,  27  to  10;  third  vote,  29 
to  2.  When  Mr.  Proffit  was  rejected,  by  a  vote  of  33  to  8,  Mr. 
Wise  was  nominated  to  succeed  him,  and  confirmed  by  a  vote  of 
30  to  10.  An  embassy  to  the  Gelestial  Empire  being  resolved  on, 
as  important  to  the  commercial  interests  of  the  United  States  in 
that  quarter  of  the  world,  and  the  co-ordinate  power  of  the  senate 
in  all  such  cases  being  defunct,  they  were  obliged  to  accept  such 
a  nomination  as  the  acting  president  should  be  pleased  to  make, 
and  he  presented  Mr.  Gushing!  It  can  not  be  denied,  that  it  was 
an  executive  retribution. 

The  conclusion  of  Mr.  Glay's   reply  to  Mr.  Rives   rightfully 
claims  a  place  here  : — 

"  I  rose  not  to  say  one  word  which  should  wound  the  feelings 
of  President  Tyler.  The  senator  says,  that,  if  placed  in  like  cir- 
cumstances, I  would  have  been  the  last  man  to  avoid  putting  a  di- 
rect veto  upon  the  bill,  had  it  met  my  disapprobation  ;  and  he  does 
me  the  honor  to  attribute  to  me  high  quahties  of  stern  and  unbend- 
ing intrepidity.  I  hope,  that  in  all  that  relates  to  personal  firmness, 
all  that  concerns  a  just  appreciation  of  the  insignificance  of  human 
lite — whatever  may  be  attempted  to  threaten  or  alarm  a  soul  not 
easily  swayed  by  opposition,  or  awed  or  intimidated  by  menace — 
a  stout  heart  and  a  steady  eye,  that  can  survey,  unmoved  and  un- 
daunted, any  mere  personal  perils  that  assail  this  poor,  transient, 
perishing  frame,  T  may,  without  disparagement,  compare  with  other 
men.     But  there  is  a  sort  of  courage,  which,  I  frankly  confess  it, 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    CONORESS.  373 

I  do  not  possess,  a  boldness  to  which  I  dare  not  aspire,  a  valor 
which  I  can  not  covet.  I  can  not  lay  myself  down  in  the  way  of 
the  weltipe  and  happiness  of  my  country.  That  I  can  not,  I  have 
not  the  courage  to  do.  I  can  not  interpose  the  power  with  which 
I  may  be  invested — a  power  conferred,  not  for  my  personal  benefit, 
nor  for  my  aggrandizement,  but  for  my  country's  good — to  check 
her  onward  march  to  greatness  and  glory.  I  have  not  courage 
enough,  I  am  too  cowardly  for  that.  I  would  not,  I  dare  not,  in 
the  exercise  of  such  a  trust,  lie  down,  and  place  my  body  across 
the  path  that  leads  my  country  to  prosperity  and  happiness.  This 
is  a  sort  of  courage  widely  different  from  that  which  a  man  may 
display  in  his  private  conduct  and  personal  relations.  Personal  or 
private  courage  is  totally  distinct  from  that  higher  and  nobler  cour- 
age which  prompts  the  patriot  to  offer  himself  a  voluntary  sacrifice 
to  his  country's  good. 

"  Nor  did  1  say,  as  the  senator  represents,  that  the  president 
should  have  resigned.  1  intimated  no  personal  wish  or  desire  that 
he  should  resign.  I  referred  to  the  fact  of  a  memorable  resignation 
in  his  public  life.  And  what  I  did  say  was,  that  there  were  other 
alternatives  before  him  besides  vetoing  the  bill  ;  and  that  it  was 
worthy  of  his  consideration,  whether  consistency  did  not  require 
that  the  example  which  he  had  set  when  he  had  a  constituency  of 
one  state,  should  not  be  followed  when  he  had  a  constituency 
commensurate  with  the  whole  Union.  Another  alternative  was,  to 
suffer  the  bill,  without  his  signature,  to  pass  into  a  law  under  the 
provisions  of  the  constitution.  And  I  must  confess,  I  see,  in  this, 
no  such  escaping  by  the  back  door,  no  such  jumping  out  of  the 
window,  as  the  senator  talks  about.  Apprehensions  of  the  impu- 
tation of  the  want  of  firmness  sometimes  impel  us  to  perform  rash 
and  inconsiderate  acts.  It  is  the  greatest  courage  to  be  able  to 
bear  the  imputation  of  the  want  of  courage.  But  pride,  vanity, 
egotism,  so  unamiable  and  offensive  in  private  life,  are  vices  which 
partake  of  the  character  of  crimes  in  the  conduct  of  public  affairs. 
The  unfortunate  victim  of  these  passions  can  not  see  beyond  the 
little,  petty,  contemptible  circle  of  his  own  personal  interests.  All 
his  thoughts  are  withdrawn  from  his  country,  and  concentrated  on 
his  consistency,  his  firmness,  himself.  The  high,  the  exalted,  the 
sublime  emotions  of  a  patriotism,  which,  soaring  toward  heaven, 
rises  far  above  all  mean,  low,  or  selfish  things,  and  is  absorbed  by 
one  soul-transporting  thought  of  the  good  and  the  glory  of  one's 
country,  are  never  felt  in  his  impenetrable  bosom.  That  patri- 
otism which,  catching  its  inspirations  from  the  immortal  God,  and 
leaving  at  an  immeasurable  distance  below  all  lesser,  grovelling, 
personal  interests  and  feelings,  animates  and  prompts  to  deeds 
of  self-sacrifice,  of  valor,  of  devotion,  and  of  death  itself — that 
is  public  virtue  ;  that  is  the  noblest,  the  sublimest  of  all  public 
virtues ! 


374  MR.    CLAY   AND    THE 

"  I  said  nothing  of  any  obligation  on  the  part  of  the  president  to 
conform  his  judgment  to  the  opinions  of  the  senate  and  house  of 
representatives,  although  the  senator  argued  as  if  I  had,  and  per- 
severed in  so  arguing,  after  repeated  corrections.  I  said  no  such 
thing.  I  know  and  respect  the  perfect  independence  of  each 
department,  acUng  within  its  proper  sphere,,  of  other  departments. 
But  I  referred  to  the  majorities  in  the  two  houses  of  Congress  as 
further  and  strong  evidence  of  the  opinion  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States  in  favor  of  the  establishment  of  a  bank  of  the  United 
States.  And  I  contended  that,  according  to  the  doctrine  of  instruc- 
tions which  prevailed  in  Virginia,  and  of  which  the  president  is  a 
disciple,  and,  in  pursuance  of  the  example  already  cited,  he  ought 
not  to  have  rejected  the  bill. 

"  I  have  heard  that,  on  his  arrival  at  the  seat  of  the  general 
government,  to  enter  upon  the  duties  of  the  office  of  vice-president, 
in  March  last,  when  interrogated  how  far  he  meant  to  conform,  in 
his  new  station,  to  certain  peculiar  opinions  which  were  held  in 
Virginia,  he  made  this  patriotic  and  noble  reply  :  '  I  am  vice-pres- 
ident of  the  United  States,  and  not  of  the  state  of  Virginia  ;  and  I 
shall  be  governed  by  the  wishes  and  opinions  of  my  constituents.' 
When  I  heard  of  this  encouraging  and  satisfactory  reply,  believing, 
as  I  most  religiously  do,  that  a  large  majority  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States  are  in  favor  of  a  national  bank  (and  gentlemen  may 
shut  their  eyes  to  the  fact,  deny,  or  dispute,  or  reason  it  away  as 
they  please,  but  it  is  my  conscientious  conviction  that  two  thirds, 
if  not  more,  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  desire  such  an  in- 
stitution), I  thought  I  beheld  a  sure  and  certain  guaranty  for  the 
fulfilment  of  the  wishes  of  the  people  of  the  United  States.  I 
thought  it  impossible,  that  the  wants  and  wishes  of  a  great  people, 
who  had  bestowed  such  unbounded  and  generous  confidence,  and 
conferred  on  him  such  exalted  honors,  should  be  disregarded  and 
disappointed.  It  did  not  enter  into  my  imagination  to  conceive, 
that  one,  who  had  sliown  so  much  deference  and  respect  to  the 
presumed  sentiments  of  a  single  state,  should  display  less  toward 
the  sentiments  of  the  whole  nation. 

"  I  hope,  Mr.  President,  that,  in  performing  the  painful  duty 
which  had  devolved  on  me,  I  have  not  transcended  the  limits  of 
legitimate  debate.  I  repeat,  in  all  truth  and  sincerity,  the  assurance 
to  the  senate  and  to  the  country,  that  nothing  but  a  stern,  reluctant, 
and  indispensable  sense  of  honor  and  of  duty  could  have  forced 
from  me  the  response  which  I  have  made  to  the  president's  objec- 
tions. But,  instead  of  yielding  without  restraint  to  the  feelings  of 
disappointment  and  mortification  excited  by  the  perusal  of  his  mes- 
sage, I  have  anxiously  endeavored  to  temper  the  notice  of  it,  which 
I  have  been  compelled  to  take,  by  the  respect  due  to  the  office  of 
chief  magistrate,  and  by  the  personal  regard  and  esteem  which  I 
have  ever  entertained  for  its  present  incumbent." 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    CONGRESS.  375 

None  can  fail  to  perceive,  that  these  remarks  are  not  of  an  ordi- 
nary character,  even  for  Mr.  Clay.  But  the  calm  dignity  of  their 
aspect  from  the  pages  where  they  lie  recorded,  in  an  imperfect 
report,  can  afford  but  a  very  faint  idea  of  the  manner,  voice,  into- 
nations, pauses,  bursts,  thunders,  low  yet  audible  whispers,  and 
all  other  attributes  ascribed  to  this  orator,  on  such  occasions,  in 
chapter  iv.,  of  the  first  volume.  Many  were  starded  from  their 
seats,  in  admiration  and  ecstacy,  and  then  sat  down,  as  they  after- 
ward declared,  because  they  could  not  stand.  The  senate  imme- 
diately adjourned,  as  if  conscious  of  the  overpowering  solemnity 
of  the  occasion,  and  a  troop  of  friends — among  whom  were  some 
political  opponents — involuntarily  surrounded  Mr.  Clay,  offering 
him  wine  and  water,  while  he  wiped  the  floods  of  passion  from 
his  brows. 

Not  more  than  once  since  this  occasion — probably  it  will  never 
occur  again — has  Mr.  Clay  burst  forth  with  all  his  astonishing 
powers,  as  a  public  orator.  That  was  in  May,  1843,  as  described 
in  the  chapter  of  this  work  above  alluded  to,  when  he  addressed 
his  fellow-citizens  of  Kentucky,  at  Lexington,  in  defence  of  him- 
self, and  of  the  twenty-seventh  Congress.  He  was  then  strongly 
moved  by  two  unlike  emotions — pain  that  his  friends  had  ex- 
pressed some  regret  for  the  appointment  he  had  made,  and  a  vir- 
tuous indignation  for  the  base  calumnies  that  had  been  propagated 
against  him  ;  and  these  sentiments  set  in  motion  every  other  of 
which  man  is  susceptible,  and  raised  them  to  the  highest  pitch. 
From  the  first  word  he  spoke,  to  the  end,  he  was  everything  of 
which  he  was  capable,  as  an  orator,  and  the  effect  was  prodigious. 
In  the  same  manner,  in  this  reply  to  INIr.  Rives,  powerful  emotions 
roused  every  passion  of  his  soul.  The  state  of  the  country,  the 
disappointment  occasioned  by  the  conduct  of  the  acting  president, 
the  fact  that  one  senator  on  that  floor  could  rise  in  vindication  of 
such  conduct,  and  the  manner  of  his  doing  it,  with  a  thousand 
thoughts  rushing  out  from  the  past,  and  looking  into  the  future,  as 
allied  to  the  momentous  interests  of  the  republic,  for  the  preserva- 
tion and  success  of  which  he  had  labored  so  long  and  with  so 
much  concern — and  rising  as  he  did  from  a  sudden  impulse,  im- 
parted by  a  friend — all  combined  to  stir  up  his  soul  to  one  of  those 
mighty  efforts,  which,  in  the  course  of  his  life,  have  now  and 
then  excited  so  much  amazement,  and  produced  such  marvellous 
effects. 


376  MR.    CLAY    AND    THE 


CHAPTER  XV. 

MR.    CLAY    AND    THE    TWENTY-SEVENTH    CONGRESS. 

What  gained  and  What  lost. — Perfidy  of  the  Acting  President. — Mr.  Clay's 
Position. — His  Plan  of  National  Policy  and  Reform,  submitted  in  the  Form  of 
Resolutions. — Statement  and  Consideration  of  this  Plan. — Objects  aimed  at  in 
1840. — Doom  of  the  then  existing  Administration. — Could  not  reform. — Must 
therefore  forge  Chains. — Project  for  a  Standing  Army  of  200,000. — The  Sub- 
Treasury. — Disclosures  of  Extravagance  and  Corruption  made  by  the  Twenty- 
Seventh  Congress. — Their  Fidelity. 

The  great  .measure  of  the  twenty-seventh  Congress  was  the 
tariff  of  1842,  which  rescued  the  country,  and  was  sufficient  to 
secure  its  prosperity,  under  many  disadvantages.  Nearly  all  the 
other  great  measures  of  national  policy,  contemplated  by  the  party 
which  came  into  power  with  such  an  unprecedented  and  over- 
whelming majority — among  which  as  most  prominent,  were  the  re- 
establishment  of  a  national  currency,  and  the  distribution  of  the 
proceeds  of  the  public  lands  among  the  states — were  defeated  by 
the  political  defection  and  faithless  conduct  of  the  acting  chief 
magistrate. 

Nothing  of  material  consequence  was  effected  for  the  relief  of 
the  country,  at  the  extra  session  of  the  twenty-seventh  Congress, 
except  the  repeal  of  the  sub-treasury,  and  the  rescue  of  the  debtor 
portion  of  the  community  by  the  passage  of  a  bankrupt  law — a 
most  undesirable  necessity,  created  by  the  wide-spread  disasters 
of  misrule,  and  a  measure,  which  is  always  sure  to  make  as  many 
more  enemies  than  friends,  as  the  number  of  creditors  exceeds 
that  of  the  debtors  relieved,  and  therefore  demanding  eminent 
moral  courage  and  patriotic  resolution  to  put  it  in  operation.  It 
was  the  beginning  of  the  misfortunes  of  the  party  raised  to  power, 
that  the  only  new  and  great  measure  which  the  perversity  of  the 
acting  chief  magistrate,  in  the  use  of  the  regal  power  of  the  con- 
stitution, would  allow  them  to  pass  at  this  session,  was  an  obnox- 
ious one.     That  very  power,  for  ever  subverting  the  public  will, 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    CONGRESS.  377 

as  expressed  by  its  representative  organs,  which  Mr.  Clay  had  been 
fighting  against  so  long,  had  started  up,  with  new  and  hydra  heads, 
at  the  moment  when  it  was  supposed  to  be  crushed,  and  in  the  very 
agent,  who  was  appointed  to  suppress  it!  And  it  appeared  again 
to  disappoint  the  nation  of  the  object  of  its  great  and  agonizing 
effort  for  relief. 

Nevertheless,  even  in  these  discouraging  circumstances,  Mr. 
Clay  was  still  at  his  post;  and  his  plan  of  public  policy,  which  he 
thought  it  his  duty  to  submit  to  this  Congress,  before  he  retired 
for  ever  from  that  field  of  labor  where  he  had  toiled,  with  litde  in- 
terruption, nearly  forty  years,  was  propounded  to  the  senate  in  the 
resolutions  he  there  offered  on  the  first  of  March,  1842,  and  ex- 
plained and  advocated  in  his  speech  made  on  the  same  occasion. 
He  beo-ins  as  follows : — 

"Mr.  President,  the  resolutions  which  have  just  been  read,  and 
which  are  to  form  the  subject  of  the  present  discussion,  are  of  the 
greatest  importance,  involving  interests  of  the  highest  character, 
and  a  system  of  policy  which,  in  my  opinion,  lies  at  the  bottom  of 
any  restoration  of  the  prosperity  of  the  country.  In  discussing 
them,  I  would  address  myself  to  you  in  the  language  of  plainness, 
of  soberness,  and  truth.  I  did  not  come  here  as  if  I  were  entering 
a  garden  full  of  flowers,  and  of  the  richest  shrubbery,  to  cull  the 
tea-roses,  the  japonicas,  the  jasmines,  and  woodbines,  and  weave 
them  into  a  garland  of  the  gayest  colors,  that,  by  the  beauty  of 
their  assortment,  and  by  their  fragrance,  I  may  gratify  fair  ladies. 
Nor  is  it  my  wish — it  is  far,  far  from  my  wish — to  revive  any  sub- 
jects of  a  party  character,  or  which  might  be  calculated  to  renew 
the  animosities  which  unhappily  have  hitherto  prevailed  between 
the  two  great  political  parties  of  the  country.  My  course  is  far 
different  from  this;  it  is  to  speak  to  you  of  the  sad  condition  of 
our  country;  to  point  out,  not  the  remote  and  original,  but  the 
proximate,  the  immediate  causes  which  have  produced,  and  are 
likely  to  continue  our  distresses,  and  to  suggest  a  remedy.  If  any 
one,  in  or  out  of  the  senate,  has  imagined  it  to  be  my  intention,  on 
this  occasion,  to  indulge  in  any  ambitious  display  of  language,  to 
attempt  any  rhetorical  flights,  or  to  deal  in  any  other  figures  than 
figures  of  arithmetic,  he  will  find  himself  greatly  disappointed. 
The  farmer,  if  he  is  a  judicious  man,  does  not  begin  to  plough  till 
he  has  first  laid  off  his  land,  and  marked  it  off  at  proper  distances, 
by  planting  stakes,  by  which  his  ploughmen  are  to  be  guided  in 
their  movements;  and  the  ploughman,  accordingly,  fixes  his  eye 
upon  the  stake  opposite  to  the  end  of  the  destined  furrow,  and  then 
endeavors  to  reach  it  by  a  straight  and  direct  line.  These  resolu- 
tions are  my  stakes." 


378  MR.    CLAY    AND    THE 

The  position  which  Mr.  Clay  occupied  at  this  moment,  is  one 
that  justly  claims,  and  will  naturally  excite,  the  profoundest  inter- 
est. He  had  done  all  he  could,  in  a  struggle  of  many  years,  to 
save  the  country  from  the  calamitous  effects  of  former  usurpations 
of  regal  power ;  he  had  magnanimously  fought  through  the  political 
revolution  of  1840,  on  the  stump,  in  support  of  the  candidate  who 
had  received  the  suffrages  of  the  Harrisburg  convention,  of  1839, 
to  the  exclusion  of  himself,  whom  every  just-minded  man  knew 
ought  to  have  been  the  nominee ;  he  had  reluctandy  retained  his 
seat  in  the  senate,  to  assist  in  establishing  the  measures  of  the  new 
administration;  the  lamented  Harrison,  who  enjoyed  the  sincere 
friendship  and  respect  of  Mr.  Clay,  by  an  inscrutable  dispensadon 
of  Providence,  had  descended  to  the  tomb ;  a  miserable  creature, 
on  whose  faith,  in  the  social  relations,  not  the  least  reliance  could 
be  placed,  succeeded  to  power,  who,  after  he  came  to  act  as  chief 
magistrate,  could  not  command  the  respect  of  one  honorable 
man,  and  was  surrounded  only  by  the  vilest  sycophants;  and  as 
a  consequence  of  this  infidelity,  all  the  contemplated  measures  of 
the  new  administradon  were  put  in  jeopardy,  and  some  of  the  most 
vital  were  already  sacrificed  by  the  perfidy  of  this  man,  when  Mr. 
Clay  brought  forward  these  resolutions  on  this  occasion.  Labors 
lost,  and  universal  gloom,  overshadowed  the  minds  of  all  true  pa- 
triots. All  that  Mr.  Clay  could  do,  was  to  submit  his  propositions 
to  Congress  and  the  nation,  if,  peradventure,  a  more  fortunate  pe- 
riod of  the  republic  might  yet  come  round,  when  they  would 
chance  to  receive  due  consideration.     Mr.  Clay  proceeded  to  say : — 

"  The  first  resolution  declares — 

"  *  That  it  is  the  duty  of  the  general  government,  for  conducting 
its  administration,  to  provide  an  adequate  revenue  within  the  year, 
to  meet  the  current  expenses  of  the  year;  and  that  any  expedient, 
either  by  loan  or  treasury-notes,  to  supply,  in  time  of  peace,  a  de- 
ficiency of  revenue,  especially  during  successive  years,  is  unwise, 
and  must  lead  to  pernicious  consequences.' 

"  I  have  heard  it  asserted,  that  this  resolution  is  but  a  truism.  If 
so,  I  regret  to  say,  that  it  is  one  from  which  governments  too  often 
depart,  and  from  which  this  government  especially  has  departed 
during  the  last  five  years.  Has  an  adequate  revenue  been  provided 
within  each  of  those  years,  to  meet  the  necessary  expenses  of 
those  same  years?     No;  far  otherwise. 

"In  1837,  at  the  called  session,  instead  of  imposing  the  requi- 
site amount  of  taxes  on  the  free  ardcles,  according  to  the  provisions 
of  the  compromise  act,  what  was  the  resort  of  the  administration? 
To  treasury-notes.     And  the  same  expedient  of  treasury-notes  has 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    CONGRESS.  379 

been  ever  since  adopted,  from  year  to  year,  to  supply  the  deficit  ac- 
cruing. And,  of  necessity,  this  policy  cast  upon  the  adniinistra- 
lion  succeeding,  an  unascertained,  unliquidated  debt,  inducing  a 
temporary  necessity  on  that  administration,  to  have  resort  to  the 
same  means  of  supply.*  *  *  *  * 

"  The  next  three  resolutions  all  relate  to  the  same  general  sub- 
jects— subjects  which  I  consider  much  the  most  important  of  any 
here  set  forth  ;  and  1  shall,  for  that  reason,  consider  them  together. 

"  The  second  resolution  asserts  : — 

"  '  That  such  an  adequate  revenue  can  not  be  obtained  by  duties 
on  foreign  imports,  w^ithout  adopting  a  higher  rate  than  twenty  per 
centum,  as  provided  for  in  the  compromise  act,  which,  at  the  time 
of  its  passage,  was  supposed  and  assumed  as  a  rate  that  would 
supply  a  sufficient  revenue  for  an  economical  administration  of  the 
government.' 

"  The  third  resolution  concludes  : — 

"  'That  the  rate  of  duties  on  foreign  imports  ought  to  be  aug- 
mented beyond  the  rate  of  twenty  per  centum,  so  as  to  produce  a 
net  revenue  of  twenty-six  millions  of  dollars — twenty-two  for  the 
ordinary  expenses  of  government,  two  for  the  payment  of  the  ex- 
isting debt,  and  two  millions  as  a  reserved  fund  for  contingencies.' 

"  '  The  fourth  resolution  asserts  : — 

"'That,  in  the  adjustment  of  a  tariff  to  raise  an  amount  of 
twenty-six  millions  of  revenue,  the  principles  of  the  compromise 
act  generally  should  be  adhered  to ;  and  that  especially  a  maximum 
rate  of  ad-valorem  duties  should  be  established,  from  which  there 
ought  to  be  as  little  departure  as  possible.' 

"The  first  question  which  these  resolutions  suggest,  is  this: 
what  should  be  the  amount  of  the  annual  expenditures  of  this  gov- 
ernment"? Now,  on  this  point,  I  shall  not  attempt,  what  is  impos- 
sible, to  be  exact  and  precise  in  stating  what  that  may  be.  We 
can  only  make  an  approximation.  No  man,  in  his  private  affairs, 
can  say,  or  pretends  to  say,  at  the  beginning  of  the  year,  precisely 

*  It  was  in  the  revenue  bill  of  184]  (extra  session),  ihat  Mr.  Clay  moved  an 
amendment  for  the  protection  of  silver  ware  and  jewelry.  The  duties  on  these  ar- 
ticles had  been  12  per  cent.  ;  the  bill  went  from  the  house  to  the  senate,  reduced 
in  this  item  to  5  per  cent.  Mr.  Clay's  amendment  raised  the  duties  on  silver  ware 
to  30  per  cent.,  and  on  jewelry  to  25,  which  passed,  and  the  same  are  incorporated 
in  the  tariff  of  1842.  In  gratitude  for  this  service,  the  New  York  gold  and  silver 
artisans — refusing  subscription  from  the  dealers — alone  raised  $1,000,  and  presented 
Mr.  Clay  with  a  splendid  silver  vase,  weishing  275  ounces,  surmounted  by  the 
American  eagle,  perched  on  a  rock  dashed  by  the  waves  of  the  sea,  surrounded  by 
a  circle  of  hearts,  the  whole  exhibiting  various  appropriate  and  elegant  devices, 
and  displaying  the  following  inscription  :  "  Presented  to  Henry  Clay,  by  the  gold 
and  silver  artisans  of  the  city  of  New  York,  as  a  tribute  of  their  respect  for  the 
faithful  and  patriotic  manner  in  which  he  has  discharged  his  high  public  trusts, 
and  especially  for  his  early  and  untiring  advocacy  of  Protection  to  American 
Industry.  1845.  Wm.  Adams,  M.  G.  Baldwin,  A.  G.  Peckham,  Edwd.  Y.  Prime, 
Dan.  Carpenter,  David  Dunn,  committee."  It  is  proper  to  observe,  that  a  commit- 
tee of  the  above  two  classes  of  artisans,  had  been  sent  to  Washington  to  implore 
protection  against  foreign  competition  and  the  frauds  of  foreign  factors,  and  that 
the  bill  was  about  to  pass,  when  Mr.  Clay  moved  his  amendment,  and  saved  them 


380  MR.    CLAY    AND    THE 

what  shall  be  the  amount  of  his  expenses  during  the  year;  that 
must  depend  on  many  unforeseen  contingencies,  which  can  not, 
with  any  precision,  be  calculated  beforehand;  all  that  can  be  done 
is  to  make  an  approximation  to  what  ought  to  be,  or  what  may  be 
the  amount.  Before  T  consider  that  question,  allow  me  to  correct 
here,  an  assertion  made  first  by  the  senator  from  South  Carolina 
[Mr.  Calhoun],  and  subsequently  by  the  senator  from  Missouri 
near  me  [Mr.  Linn],  and  I  believe  by  one  or  two  other  gentlemen, 
namely,  that  the  whig  party,  when  out  of  power,  asserted  that,  if 
trusted  with  the  helm,  they  would  administer  this  government  at  an 
amount  of  expenditure  not  exceeding  thirteen  millions  of  dollars. 
I  hope,  if  such  an  assertion  was  actually  made  by  either  or  all  of 
these  gentlemen,  that  it  will  never  be  repeated  again,  without  re- 
sorting to  proof  to  sustain  it.  I  know  of  no  such  position  ever 
taken  by  the  whig  party,  or  by  any  prominent  member  of  the  whig 
party.  Sure  I  am  that  the  party  generally  pledged  itself  to  no 
such  reduction  of  the  public  expenses — none. 

"  No — but  this  was  what  they  said  :  '  During  the  four  years  of 
the  administration  of  Mr.  Adams,  the  average  amount  of  the  public 
expenditure  was  but  thirteen  millions,  and  you  charged  that  admin- 
istration with  outrageous  extravagance,  and  came  yourselves  into 
power  on  promises  to  reduce  the  annual  expenditure  ;  but,  having 
obtained  power,  instead  of  reducing  the  public  expenses,  you  car- 
ried them  up  to  the  astonishing  amount  of  near  forty  millions.'  " 

It  may,  perhaps,  be  supposed  that  there  is  an  inconsistency 
between  what  Mr.  Clay  says  here,  and  his  private  letter  to  Mr. 
Johnson,  of  1831,  inserted  at  the  opening  of  chapter  viii.  of 
this  volume,  and  that,  if  he  thought  twelve  millions  would  do 
then,  twenty-two  millions  was  a  large  allowance  for  1842.  As  to 
consistency,  it  can  not  be  a  question,  as  Mr.  Clay,  in  1842,  was 
speaking  of  a  matter  of  fact,  not  of  opinion.  Next,  the  phrase 
^^  about  twelve  millions,"  used  by  him  in  1831,  shows  that  he  did 
not  pretend  to  be  definite,  nor  was  it  for  public  purposes,  but  in  a 
private  communication.  Thirdly,  it  shows  that  he  was  moderate, 
and  not  extravagant.  Fourthly,  it  does  not  appear,  that  twenty- 
two  millions  for  1842  was  greater  than  twelve  for  1831.  But, 
fifthly,  Mr.  Clay's  opponents,  who  had  brought  up  the  public 
expenditures  to  an  average  of  over  thirty-five  millions,  from  1837 
to  1840,  inclusive,  are  the  last  who  are  entided  to  complain  of 
his  opinion  in  1831,  or  his  estimates  in  1842. 

Mr.  Clay  proceeds  : — 

"  The  question  recurs,  at  what  sum  can  the  expenses  of  the 
government  be  now  fixed  ? 

"  I  repeat  that  the  exact  amount  is  difficult  to  be  ascertained. 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    CONGRESS.  381 

I  have  stated  it  in  the  resolution  I  now  offer,  at  twenty-two  mill- 
ions; and  I  shall  soon  show  how  I  have  arrived  at  the  amount. 
But,  before  I  do  that,  allow  me  to  call  the  attention  of  the  senate 
to  the  expenditures  of  the  preceding  administration  ;  for,  in  at- 
tempting to  fix  a  sum  for  the  future,  I  know  of  no  course  but  to 
look  back  upon  the  experience  of  the  past,  and  then  to  endeavor 
to  deduce  from  it  the  probable  amount  of  future  expenditure. 
What,  then,  were  the  expenditures  of  the  four  years  of  the  past 
administration  ? 

In  1837,  the  amount  was $37,265,037  15 

In  1838,  it  was 39,455,438  35 

In  1839,      «     37,614,936   15 

In  1840,      "     28,226,533  81 

Making  an  aggregate  of $142,561,945  46 

"  Which  gives  us  an  average  per  year  of  thirty-five  millions  six 
hundred  and  forty  thousand  four  hundred  and  eighty-six  dollars 
and  thirty-eight  cents. 

"  The  sum  I  have  proposed  is  only  twenty-two  millions,  which 
deducted  from  thirty-five,  as  above,  leaves  a  reduction  of  thirteen 
millions  six  hundred  and  forty  thousand  dollars — being  a  sum 
greater  than  the  whole  average  expenditure  of  the  extravagant  and 
profligate  administration  of  Mr.  Adams,  which  they  told  us  was  so 
enormous  that  it  must  be  reduced  by  a  great  'retrenchment  and 
reform.'  " 

It  is  manifestly  not  very  encouraging  to  upright  statesmen  to  be 
obliged  to  encounter  such  charges  as  were  made  against  the  ex- 
travagances of  Mr.  Adams's  administration,  when  brought  by  men 
who  contrived  in  a  few  years  to  increase  the  expenses  of  govern- 
ment nearly  three  to  one. 

The  political  revolution  of  1840  was  fortunate  enough  for  those 
who  had  for  many  years  been  in  charge  of  the  government.  They 
were  committed  to  principles  and  measures,  that  would  have  in- 
volved them  in  inextricable  financial  difficulties,  before  another  four 
years  could  have  accomplished  their  round.  It  is  true  the  sub- 
treasury  was  a  good  device  to  pay  the  salaries  of  the  president  and 
his  officeholders,  and  if  the  people  would  have  submitted  to  direct 
taxation,  without  anything  to  pay,  for  the  support  of  these  public 
functionaries,  it  might  have  done.  But  the  feeling  manifested  in 
1840  showed,  that  it  was  at  least  an  age  too  early  to  rely  on  such 
measures.  How,  then,  was  the  treasury  to  be  supplied  on  free 
trade  principles?  The  revenue  for  the  last  four  years  had  been 
inadequate  for  the  expenditures  of  die  government  by  some  thirty 
millions,  or  more,  and  was  rapidly  falhng  off  every  year.     Even 


382  MR.    CLAY    AND    THE  * 

with  the  check  of  the  transient  tariff  of  1S41,  it  went  down  to  less 
than  thirteen  millions  at  the  expiration  of  the  term  of  the  compro- 
mise act.  How  could  a  government,  spending  thirty-five  millions 
a  year,  get  along  with  such  a  revenue  ? — a  government  whose 
principles  and  measures  were  necessarily  cutting  it  down  every 
year.  The  creditors  of  the  United  States,  and  the  capitalists  of 
the  world,  were  lookers-on.  They  could  not  but  see  the  tendency 
and  the  end  of  such  a  course.  It  is  well  known,  that  the  credit 
of  the  government  was  already  used  up,  and  not  a  dollar  could  be 
borrowed,  till  the  tariff  of  1842  was  enacted.  The  system  of 
credit  resorted  to  in  the  issue  of  treasury-notes,  was  a  bubble  which 
had  had  its  day,  and  was  on  the  eve  of  bursting.  There  was  no 
apparent  prospect  of  reducing  the  expenses  of  the  government,  while 
it  remained  in  the  same  hands.  Every  succeeding  annual  report 
of  the  secretary  of  the  treasury  presented  nothing  but  more  dis- 
couraging and  yet  darker  prospects.  Mr.  Woodbury,  speaking, 
in  his  report  of  1840,  of  the  descending  scale  of  duties,  said  :  "  If 
the  imports  then  [1842]  should  not  differ  much  from  those  of  1838, 
this  [statement  just  made]  would  leave  an  income  from  them  not 
probably  exceeding  ten  or  eleven  millions  of  dollars  yearly."  What 
could  be  done  in  a  persistance  in  such  measures,  on  such  princi- 
ples ?  The  seven-to-eight  millions  annual  deficit  in  the  revenue, 
which  must  soon  be  ten  millions,  soon  fifteen,  soon  twenty,  and  so 
on,  swelling  up  a  national  debt  like  mountains,  were  prospects  which 
the  most  courageous  financier  could  not  comfortably  face,  and  which 
the  sympathies  of  a  dependent  and  imploring  government  could  not 
at  all  relieve. 

But  it  is  altogether  unnecessary  to  carry  out  these  contingent 
results  in  such  forms — forms  which  had  a  fair  promise  of  growing 
into  substances.  The  government  of  the  United  States  could  not 
have  subsisted  two  years  longer  under  such  a  policy,  without  falling 
into  bankruptcy,  and  resorting  to  direct  taxation  for  its  support. 
Direct  taxation,  indeed,  appears  to  have  been  the  aim.  It  has  been 
avowed.  It  is  a  fundamental  doctrine  of  the  advocates  of  that  policy. 
But  that  could  not  lessen,  but  would  only  have  increased  the  diffi- 
culties, with  a  people  whose  habits  and  feelings  were  not  prepared 
for  it — to  say  nothing  of  the  still  greater  difficulties  arising  from 
general  poverty,  which,  in  a  state  of  things  induced  by  such  a 
policy,  would  have  rendered  the  payment  of  taxes,  thus  imposed, 
absolutely  impossible.  The  system  of  protection  entirely  broken 
down,  there  would  have  been  no  money  in  the  country,  except  in 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    CONGRESS.  383 

the  sub-treasury  vaults,  which,  being  evoked  for  the  uses  of  gov- 
ernment, and  not  replenished  by  a  people  who  had  none,  would 
itself  take  wings  and  fly  away  to  satisfy  foreign  demands. 

"  How,  then,"  said  Mr.  Clay,  "  will  the  total  of  our  expendi- 
tures stand  ?     We  shall  have — 

For  the  civil  and  diplomatic  expenses  of  the  government. . . .    $3,500,000 

For  the  military  service 9,000,000 

For  the  naval  service 6,500,000 

For  permanent  appropriations  ...    ], 500,000 

For  appropriations  not  included  in  estimates 1,500,000 

Makins;  an  aggregate  of $22,000,000 


*03^ 


(( 


To  this  amount  I  suppose,  and  hope,  our  expenses  may  be 
reduced,  until,  on  due  investigation,  it  shall  be  discovered  that  still 
further  reductions  may  be  effected. 

"  Well,  then,  having  fixed  the  amount  at  twenty-two  millions  for 
the  ordinary  current  expenses  of  government,  I  have  supposed  it 
necessary  and  proper  to  add  two  millions  more  to  make  provision 
for  the  payment  of  the  existing  national  debt,  which  is,  in  the 
event  of  the  loan's  being  taken  up,  seventeen  nuUions.  And  then 
I  go  on  to  add  two  millions  more  as  a  reserved  fund,  to  meet  con- 
tingencies ;  so  that,  should  there  be  a  temporary  rise  of  the  expen- 
ditures beyond  twenty-two  millions,  or  any  sudden  emergency 
should  occur  which  could  not  be  anticipated  or  calculated  on,  there 
may  be  the  requisite  means  in  the  treasury  to  meet  it.  Nor  has 
there  been  a  single  secretary  at  the  head  of  the  treasury  since  the 
days  of  Mr.  Gallatin,  including  the  respectable  gentleman  from 
New  Hampshire  opposite  [jNIr.  Woodbury],  who  has  not  held  and 
expressed  the  opinion,  that  a  reserved  fund  is  highly  expedient 
and  proper  for  contingencies.  Thus  I  propose  that  twenty-two 
millions  shall  be  appropriated  for  ordinary  expenses,  two  millions 
more  to  provide  for  the  public  debt,  and  other  two  millions  a 
reserved  fund  to  meet  contingencies :  making  in  all  twenty-six 
millions  " 

The  plain,  matter-of-fact,  business  character  of  the  foregoing 
extracts,  are  a  sufficient  verification  of  the  declaration  at  the  out- 
set, that  Mr.  Clay  did  not  consider  himself  as  entering  a  garden 
"  to  cull  tea-roses,  japonicas,  jasmines,  and  woodbines,  where- 
withal to  weave  a  garland  for  fair  ladies,  or  to  deal  with  any  other 
figures,  than  figures  of  arithmetic."  Those  only  will  be  able  to 
appreciate  this  notice,  who  are  given  to  understand,  that,  when  it 
was  known  Mr.  Clay  was  going  to  occupy  the  floor,  the  ladies 
would  flock  to  the  galleries  ;  and  this  was  no  doubt  said,  with  a 
glance  of  the  eye  aloft,  to  the  brilliant  circle  with  which  he  was 
surrounded.  They  were  not,  however,  disposed  to  retire,  even 
with  such  a  warning,  that  he  had  no  flowers  for  the  fair. 


384  MR.    CLAY    AND    THE 

The  system  with  which  Mr.  Clay  went  into  this  great  and  com- 
prehensive theme — it  was  nothing  less  than  the  entire  pohcy  of  a 
nation — and  the  correctness  with  which  he  carried  it  through — 
correct  as  to  facts  of  infinite  variety  and  compHcation — show  the 
statesman  of  forty  years'  sagacious  observation  and  profound 
experience.  None  but  a  mind,  so  long  and  so  well  trained  in  state 
affairs,  could  lay  out  a  plan  of  national  policy  in  detail,  with  such 
reliable  certainty.  Nothing  more  is  attempted  in  these  extracts, 
than  to  present  the  more  prominent  and  weighty  elements  of  the 
system  in  isolated  forms.  The  filling-up  belongs  to  the  careful 
studies  and  practised  work  of  legislation,  and  the  completeness  of 
the  picture  will  be  found  in  the  entire  speech.  The  elements  of 
calculation  by  which  Mr.  Clay  arrived  at  his  results,  are  so  ar- 
ranged as  to  amount  to  the  clearest  demonstration  of  the  policy 
necessary  to  be  adopted,  and  of  the  amount  of  duties  that  must 
be  imposed  to  raise  an  adequate  revenue — all  based  on  the  princi- 
ples of  the  compromise  of  1833,  and  shown  to  accord  with  them. 
For  the  last  time  Mr.  Clay  reasserts  his  views  of  that  act,  and  ex- 
plains it,  which  is  in  part  cited  in  a  former  chapter,  where  that 
subject  was  especially  under  consideration.  The  conclusion  of 
his  remarks  on  this  subject,  is  thus  stated  : — 

"  I  contend,  therefore,  with  entire  confidence,  that  it  is  perfectly 
consistent  with  the  provisions  of  the  compromise  act,  to  impose 
duties  to  any  amount  whatever,  thirty,  forty,  or  more  per  centum, 

subject  to  the  single  condition  of  an  economical  admimstration  of 
the  government.'''' 

Mr.  Clay  gives  a  preference  to  the  ad-valorem  mode  of  asses- 
sing duties,  with  a  minute  exposition  of  his  views,  the  substance 
of  which  is  thus  stated  : — 

"  The  one  principle  declares  that  the  duty  shall  be  paid  upon 
the  real  value  of  the  article  taxed  ;  the  specific  principle  imposes 
an  equal  duty  on  articles  greatly  unequal  in  value.  Cofi^ee,  for 
example,  is  one  of  the  articles  on  which  a  specific  duty  has  been 
levied.  Now,  it  is  perfectly  well  known  that  the  Mocha  coffee  is 
worth  at  least  twice  as  much  as  the  coffee  of  St.  Domingo  or 
Cuba,  yet  both  pay  the  same  duty.  The  tax  has  no  respect  to 
the  value,  but  is  arbitrarily  levied  on  all  articles  of  a  specific  kind, 
alike,  however  various  and  unequal  may  be  their  values.  I  say 
that,  in  theory,  and  according  to  every  sound  principle  of  justice, 
the  ad-valorem  mode  of  taxation  is  entitled  to  the  preference." 

At  the  same  time  he  speaks  of  the  importance  of  a  home  val- 
uation. 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    CONGRESS.  385 

The  fifth  resolution  proposed  by  Mr.  Clay  on  this  occasion, 
was  the  following  : — 

"  Resolvcfl,  That  the  provision  in  the  act  of  the  extra  session, 
for  the  distribution  of  the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands,  requiring 
the  operation  of  that  act  to  be  suspended  in  the  contingency  of  a 
higher  rate  of  duty  than  twenty  per  centum,  ought  to  be  repealed." 

It  is  practically  interesting  and  important  to  observe,  that  Mr. 
Clay  finds  elements  of  calculation  here  for  the  statement,  that  in 
withholding  the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands  from  the  states,  no 
more  is  gained,  than  an  average  rate  of  duties  at  twenty-seven,  or 
twenty-seven  and  a  half,  instead  of  thirty  per  cent.  ;  and  he  chal- 
lenges proof  to  the  contrary.  It  follows,  that  this  almost  inap- 
preciable gain  to  the  nation,  is  to  be  set  over  against  the  inestima- 
ble benefit  to  the  states,  as  involved  in  the  question  of  distribution. 

The  following  are  the  sixth  and  seventh  resolutions  : — 

"  Resolved,  That  it  is  the  duty  of  government,  at  all  times,  but 
more  especially  in  a  season  such  as  now  exists,  of  general  embar- 
rassment, and  pecuniary  distress,  to  abolish  all  useless  institutions 
and  offices,  to  curtail  all  unnecessary  expenses,  and  to  practise 
rigid  economy. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  contingent  expenses  of  the  two  houses  of 
Congress  ought  to  be  greatly  reduced  ;  and  the  mileage  of  mem- 
bers of  Congress  ought  to  be  regulated,  and  more  clearly  defined." 

The  first  of  these  two  resolutions,  aims,  as  all  conversant  with 
the  history  of  the  extravagant  expenditures  of  the  two  former  ad- 
ministrations (.lackson's  and  Van  Buren's)  will  perceive,  at  re- 
trenchment from  those  prodigal  habits.  Upon  the  second,  Mr. 
Clay  says: — 

"  It  has  appeared  to  me,  that  the  process  of  retrenchment  of 
the  public  expenses,  and  reform  of  existing  abuses,  ought  to  begin, 
in  an  especial  manner,  here,  with  ourselves,  in  Congress  itself, 
where  is  found  one  of  the  most  extravagant  of  all  the  branches  of 
the  government.  We  should  begin  at  home,  and  encourage  the 
work  of  retrenchment  by  our  own  example.  I  have  before  me  a 
document  which  exhibits  the  gradual  progress  in  the  contingent 
expenses  of  the  two  houses  of  Congress,  from  1820  to  1840,  em- 
bracing a  period  of  twenty  years,  divided  into  terms  four  years 
apart,  and  it  shows  that  the  amount  of  the  contingent  fund  has  ad- 
vanced from  eighty-six  thousand  dollars,  which  it  was  in  1824, 
to  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  thousand  in  1823,  a  rate  of 
increase  not  greater  than  was  proper,  considering  the  progress  of 
the  country  ;  to  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  thousand  in  1832  ;  to 
two  hundred  and  sixty-three  thousand,  in  183G  ;  and,  in  1840,  it 
Vol.  II.— 25 


386  MR.    CLAY    AND    THE 

amounted,  under  an  administration  which  charged  that  in  1824 
with  extravagance,  to  the  enormous  sum  of  three  hundred  and 
eighty-four  thousand,  three  hundred  and  thirty-three  dollars  !  I 
am  really  sorry,  for  the  credit  of  Congress,  to  be  obliged  to  read 
a  statement  exhibiting  such  shameful,  such  profligate  waste.  And 
allow  me  here  to  say,  without  any  intention  of  being  unkind  to 
those  able  and  competent  officers,  the  secretary  of  the  senate,  and 
the  clerk*  of  the  house  of  representatives  (not  the  present  clerk), 
that  they  ought  to  bear  a  share  of  the  responsibility,  for  the  great 
and  sudden  growth  of  this  expenditure.  How  did  it  arise?  The 
clerk  presents  his  estimate  of  the  sum  that  will  be  necessary,  and 
the  committee  of  ways  and  means,  being  busily  occupied  in  mat- 
ters of  greater  moment,  take  it  without  sufficient  examination,  and 
insert  it  at  once  on  the  appropriation  bill.  But  I  insist  that  it 
should  be  cut  down  to  a  sum  of  which  members  of  Congress  may, 
with  some  decency,  speak  to  their  constituents.  A  salutary  re- 
form has  been  commenced  in  the  house  of  representatives,  which 
ought  to  be  followed  up  here.  They  have  already  stricken  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars  from  the  contingent  fund  for  both  houses  ; 
but  they  should  go  much  lower.  I  hope  there  will  be  another 
item  of  retrenchment,  in  fixing  a  reasonable  maximum  amount,  to 
be  allowed  for  stationery  furnished  to  the  members  of  Congress. 
If  this  shall  be  adopted,  much  will  have  been  done  ;  for  this  is  one 
of  the  most  fruitful  sources  of  congressional  extravagance.  I  am 
told  that  the  stationery  furnished  during  the  twenty-fifth  Congress 
averages  more  than  one  hundred  dollars  per  head  to  each  member. 
Can  any  man  believe  that  any  such  amount  as  this  can  be  neces- 
sary ?     Is  it  not  an  instance  of  profligate  waste  and  profusion  ? 

"  My  next  resolution  is  directed  to  the  expenses  of  the  judicial 
department  of  the  government : — 

"  '  Resolved,  That  the  expenses  of  the  judicial  department  have, 
of  late  years,  been  greatly  increased,  and  ought  to  be  diminished.'  " 

After  showing  that  there  was  occasion  for  this  reproach,  he 
says : — 

"  I  am  truly  sorry,  that  in  a  branch  of  the  government  which,  for 
its  purity  and  uprightness,  has  ever  been  distinguished,  and  which  so 
well  merits  the  admiration  of  the  whole  country,  there  should  have 
occurred  so  discreditable  an  increase  in  the  expenses  of  its  prac- 
tical administration. 

"  The  next  resolution  asserts — 

"  '  That  the  diplomatic  relations  of  the  United  States  with  for- 
eign powers  have  been  unnecessarily  extended  during  the  last 
twelve  years,  and  ought  to  be  reduced.' 

•  It  is  but  justice  to  those  ofBcers  to  say,  that  the  most  extravagant  increase  in 
the  contingent  expenses  of  Congress,  is  in  the  article  of  printing,  for  which  they 
are  not  responsible. 


TWEXTY-SEVENTH   CONGRESS.  387 

*'I  will  not  dwell  long  on  this  subject.  I  must  remark,  how- 
ever, that  since  the  days  of  Mr.  Adams's  administration,  the  num- 
ber of  foreign  ministers,  of  the  first  grade,  has  nearly  doubled, 
and  that  of  ministers  of  the  second  grade  has  nearly  tripled. 
Why,  we  have  ministers  abroad,  who  are  seeking  for  the  govern- 
ments to  which  they  are  accredited,  and  the  governments  are  not 
to  be  found  !  We  have  ministers  at  Constantinople  and  Vienna, 
and  for  what?  We  have  an  unreciprocated  mission  to  Naples, 
and  for  what  ?  There  was,  at  the  last  session,  an  attempt  to  abol- 
ish this  appointment,  but  it  unfortunately  failed.  One  would  think, 
that,  in  such  a  one-sided,  unreciprocated  diplomacy,  if  a  regard  to 
economy  did  not  prompt  us  to  discontinue  the  relation,  national 
pride  would.  In  like  manner,  we  might  look  round  the  coasts  of 
Europe,  and  of  this  continent,  and  find  mission  after  mission 
which  there  seems  to  be  no  earthly  utility  in  retaining.  But  I 
forbear. 

"  The  next  resolution  of  the  series  reads  thus  : — 
"  '■Resolved,  That  the  franking  privilege  ought  to  be  further  re- 
stricted, the  abusive  uses  of  it  restrained  and  punished,  the  post- 
ao-e  on  letters  reduced,  the  mode  of  estimating  distances  more 
clearly  defined  and  prescribed,  and  a  small  addition  to  postage 
made  on  books,  pamphlets,  and  packages  transmitted  by  the  mail, 
to  be  graduated  and  increased  according  to  their  respective 
weights.' " 

The  new  postage  law  of  1 845  has  in  part  fulfilled  the  purposes 
of  this  resolution. 

^^  ^  Resolved,  That  the  secretaries  of  state,  of  the  treasury,  of 
war,  and  of  the  navy  departments,  and  the  postmaster-general,  he 
severally  directed,  as  soon  as  practicable,  to  report  what  offices 
can  be  abolished,  and  what  retrenchments  of  public  expenditure 
can  be  made,  without  public  detriment,  in  the  respective  branches 
of  the  public  service  under  their  charge,'  " 

This  is  the  last  of  the  resolutions  offered  by  Mr.  Clay  on  this 
occasion,  in  the  development  of  his  plan  of  national  policy,  and 
public  reform.  He  was  not  insensible,  that  he  was  striking  at  the 
head  of  the  monster  ;  for,  of  all  men,  except  the  national  executive, 
the  heads  of  departments  are  most  incapable  of  reform  in  the  way 
of  retrenchment ;  and  yet,  if  it  is  not  done  there,  it  can  not  be 
done  anywhere  ;  for  the  spheres  of  their  superintendence  compre- 
hend all  the  expenditures  of  the  government.     Mr.  Clay  said  : — 

"  We  all  know  that,  if  the  heads  of  departments  will  not  go  to 
work  with  us  honesdy  and  faithfully,  in  truth  and  sincerity.  Con- 
gress, thus  unaided,  can  effect  comparatively  but  little.  I  hope 
they  will  enter  with  us  on  the  good  work  of  retrenchment  and  re- 


388  MR.    CLAY    AND    THE 

form.  I  shall  be  the  last  to  express  in  advance  any  distrust  of  their 
upright  intentions  in  this  respect.  The  only  thing  that  alarms  me 
is,  that  two  of  these  departments  have  come  to  us  asking  for  ap- 
propriations far  beyond  any  that  have  heretofore  been  demanded 
in  time  of  peace,  and  that  with  the  full  knowledge  of  the  fact  of 
an  empty  treasury.  But  I  still  hope,  when  they  shall  see  Congress 
heartily,  in  earnest,  engaged  in  retrenching  useless  expenditure, 
and  reducing  estimates  that  can  not  be  complied  with,  that  they 
will  boldly  bring  out  to  view  all  abuses  which  exist  in  tiieir  several 
spheres  of  action,  and  let  us  apply  the  pruning-knife,  so  as  to  re- 
duce the  national  expenditure  within  some  proper  and  reasonable 
amount.  At  all  events,  they  are,  of  course,  most  familiar  with  the 
details  of  the  subject,  as  it  relates  to  their  several  branches  of  the 
administration." 

The  obvious  reason  why  Mr.  Clay  spoke  so  discouragingly  as 
to  the  probable  fidelity  to  be  found  in  this  quarter,  must  be  looked 
for  in  the  fact,  that  the  heads  of  departments  appointed  by  General 
Harrison  had  all  resigned  except  one,  and  that  the  new  appoint- 
ments had  not  the  confidence  of  the  party  that  was  entided  to  gov- 
ern the  country  by  the  election  of  1840.  It  was,  in  fact,  as  Mr. 
Clay  suggested,  impossible  for  Congress  alone  to  effect  a  reform, 
without  the  aid  of  the  executive  and  his  departments  ;  and  the  re- 
sult of  the  whole  was,  that  no  man  at  the  head  of  the  government 
in  the  United  States  had  ever  stood  more  in  the  way  of  reform,  or 
more  shamefully  prostituted  his  power  to  private  ends  and  corrupt 
designs,  than  Mr.  Tyler.  His  officers  held  the  keys  of  the  bureaus 
that  were  necessary  to  expose  the  corruptions  of  the  preceding  ad- 
ministrations, and  he  being  disposed,  not  only  to  cover  up  the  past, 
but  to  hide  the  future.  Congress  was  able  to  make  no  other  disclo- 
sures than  such  as  could  not  be  prevented  by  executive  obstacles. 
The  reforms  intended  by  the  revolution  of  1840,  and  proposed  by 
Mr.  Clay  and  his  associates  in  the  tw^enty -seventh  Congress,  were, 
therefore,  but  very  partially  accomplished.  It  was  almost  in  vain 
that  Mr.  Clay  said  : — 

"Do  we  not  owe  it  to  this  bleeding  country,  to  ourselves,  and 
the  unparalleled  condition  of  the  time,  to  exhibit  to  the  world  a 
fixed,  resolute,  and  patriotic  purpose,  to  reduce  the  public  expend- 
iture to  an  economical  standard  ?" 

The  following  generous  sentiments  uttered  on  this  occasion,  will 
no  doubt  be  appreciated  : — 

"  I  shall  not  now  go  into  the  causes  by  which  the  country  has 
been  brought  down  from  the  elevated   condition  of  prosperity  it 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    CONGRESS.  389 

once  enjoyed,  to  its  present  state  of  general  embarrassment  and 
distress.  I  think  that  those  causes  are  as  distinctly  in  my  under- 
standing and  memory  as  any  subjects  were  ever  impressed  there  ; 
but  I  have  no  desire  to  go  into  a  discussion  which  can  only  revive 
the  remembrance  of  unpleasant  topics.  My  purpose,  my  fixed 
purpose  on  this  occasion,  has  been  to  appeal  to  all  gendemen,  on 
all  political  sides  of  this  chamber,  to  come  out  and  make  a  sacrifice 
of  all  lesser  differences,  in  a  patriotic,  generous,  and  general  effort, 
for  the  relief  of  their  country.  I  shall  not  open  those  bleeding 
wounds  which  have,  in  too  many  instances,  been  inflicted  by 
brothers'  hands — especially  will  I  not  do  so  at  this  time,  and  on 
this  occasion.  I  shall  look  merely  at  facts  as  they  are.  I  shall 
not  ask  what  have  been  the  remote  causes  of  the  depression  and 
wretchedness  of  our  once-glorious  and  happy  country.  I  will 
turn  my  view  only  on  causes  which  are  proximate,  indisputable, 
and  immediately  before  us." 

After  pointing  to  the  secret  of  all  the  national  troubles,  in  their 
practical  results,  to  wit,  the  relaxation  of  the  protective  policy, 
and  the  consequent  draining  of  the  precious  metals  from  the  coun- 
try, Mr.  Clay  says  : — 

"  What,  then,  is  to  be  done,  to  check  this  foreign  drain  ?  We 
have  tried  free  trade.  We  have  had  the  principles  of  free  trade 
operating  on  more  than  half  the  total  amount  of  our  comforts,  for 
the  greater  part  of  nine  years  past.  That  will  not  do,  we  see. 
Do  let  me  recall  to  the  recollection  of  the  senate  the  period  when 
the  protective  system  was  thought  about  to  be  permanently  estab- 
lished. What  was  the  great  argument  then  urged  against  its  estab- 
lishment? It  was  this  :  that  if  duties  were  laid  directly  for  protec- 
tion, then  we  must  resort  to  direct  taxation  to  meet  the  wants  of 
the  government ;  everybody  must  make  up  their  minds  to  a  system 
of  internal  taxation.  Look  at  the  debate  in  the  house  of  repre- 
sentatives of  1824,  and  you  will  find  that  was  the  point  on  which 
the  great  stress  was  laid.  Well,  it  turned  out  as  the  friends  of  pro- 
tection told  you  it  would.  We  said  that  such  would  not  be  the 
effect.  True,  it  would  diminish  importation,  as  it  did  ;  but  the 
augmented  amount  of  taxes  would  more  than  compensate  for  the 
reduced  amount  of  goods.     This  we  told  you,  and  we  were  right." 

It  had  happened  ten  years  before,  that  Mr.  Clay  had  been  en- 
gaged in  debate  on  this  theme  with  General  Hayne,  of  South  Car- 
olina, when  the  tariff  of  1832  was  pending,  and  that  General  Hayne 
had  predicted  certain  contingent  results.  He  depicted  in  the  most 
glowing  language  the  ruin  which  had  fallen  on  the  south,  as  the 
consequence  of  the  tariff,  and  declared  his  conviction,  that  a  return 
to  free  trade  would  restore  their  prosperity.     Since  the  existence 


390  MR.    CLAY     AND    THE 

of  the  compromise  act,  more  than  half  of  the  imports  had  been 
duty  free,  and  a  descending  scale  of  duties,  without  applying  the 
principle  of  home  valuation  which  the  compromise  contemplated, 
at  least  at  the  end  of  its  term — it  was  a  part  of  the  compromise — 
and  yet  prosperity,  as  predicted  by  General  Hayne,  had  not  re- 
turned to  the  south,  nor  to  any  other  part  of  the  country.  On  the 
contrary,  just  in  proportion  as  the  administration  of  the  compro- 
mise measure — it  was  owing  chiefly  to  administration — approxima- 
ted in  its  effects  toward  free  trade,  the  condition  of  the  country  as 
a  whole,  and  of  every  part  of  it,  grew  worse  and  worse.  Such 
were  the  facts.  And  as  there  is  no  more  reliable  reasoning  than 
that  of  deduction  from  ascertained  events  and  occurrences,  a  com- 
parison of  the  state  of  things  before  the  tariff  of  1S24,  with  the 
state  of  things  consequent  thereupon,  and  with  the  state  of  things 
under  the  operation  of  the  compromise,  as  administered,  down  to 
the  end  of  its  term,  was  obviously  a  safe,  and  the  safest  possible, 
rule  of  forming  an  opinion  on  the  effects  of  protection  as  opposed 
to  no  protection.  The  state  of  the  country  for  the  seven  years 
previous  to  1824  was  most  deplorable  ;  for  seven  years  subsequent, 
it  was  never  more  prosperous,  nor  so  much  so  ;  and  no  American 
citizen,  living  at  the  time,  need  be  told  of  the  accumulated  calam- 
ities which  befell  the  people  of  the  United  States  from  1S3G  to  1840. 
Was  not  this  light — convincing,  overpowering  light?  And  all  parts 
of  the  country  suffered  together,  as  they  had  prospered  together. 

The  secret  of  the  difficulty  was,  as  elsewhere  shown  in  this 
work,  that  labor,  which  is  the  agent  of  power  in  despotic  countries, 
was,  in  the  relaxation  of  the  protective  policy  in  the  United  States, 
employed  to  deprive  American  labor  of  its  fair  reward,  and  to  with- 
draw such  a  fraction  of  its  compensation  from  the  country  as  to 
impoverish  it.  The  difference  between  the  position  of  labor  as  the 
agent  of  power,  and  that  of  labor  as  an  independent  agent,  is  the 
difference  between  a  state  of  bondage  and  of  freedom.  Labor 
controlled,  in  an  open  field,  will  soon  control  labor  that  before  was 
uncontrolled.  It  is  because  the  former  is  in  hands  that  can  afford 
to  make  present  sacrifices  for  future  profit — in  hands  professionally 
devoted  to  this  very  object,  which  have  nothing  else  to  do,  which 
are  skilled  in  their  vocation,  all  whose  intei'ests  are  vested  in  the 
success  of  their  scheme.  Give  them  the  field,  and  they  are  sure 
to  succeed.  It  is  impossible  they  should  not.  Having  power  over 
labor  as  an  agent  in  one  place,  in  their  own  domestic  sphere,  they 
are  sure  to  extend  that  sway  wherever  the  path  is  open — the  path 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    CONGRESS.  391 

of  free  trade.  European  despotism — that  is  despotic  power  in  all 
countries  which  has  subjected  labor  to  its  control — finds  no  other 
obstacle  to  the  end  of  making  the  United  States  tributary,  but  the 
American  system  as  advocated  by  Mr.  Clay.  The  moment  the 
protective  policy  is  relaxed,  or  is  made  anything  less  than  being 
fully  adequate  to  protect  American  labor,  as  an  independent  agent, 
itself  the  power  of  the  country,  foreign  despotisms  march  in,  take 
possession  of  the  field,  and  withdraw  its  wealth,  for  their  own  ag- 
grandizement, and  to  fortify  their  position  as  the  controlling  power 
of  the  world.  This  is  the  hinge,  the  pivot,  on  which  the  protective 
policy  turns  ;  and  the  sooner  it  is  seen  to  rest  on  this  point,  the 
better.  There  is  no  other.  It  is  a  controversy  between  labor  as 
an  agent  in  the  hands  of  despotic  power,  and  labor  as  an  independ- 
ent agent ;  and  the  question  is,  whether  the  latter  shall  remain  in- 
dependent, or  consent  to  associate  itself  with  the  doom  of  those 
who  are  already  subjected  to  the  will  of  masters. 

But  let  Mr.  Clay  speak  on  this  point : — 

"  Who  that  has  a  heart,  or  the  sympathies  of  a  man,  can  say 
or  feel  that  our  hatters,  tailors,  and  shoemakers,  should  not  be  pro- 
tected against  the  rival  productions  of  other  countries  ?  Who 
would  say  that  the  shoemaker,  who  makes  the  shoes  of  his  wife — 
his  own  wife,  according  to  the  proverb,  being  the  last  woman  in  the 
parish  that  is  supplied  with  hers — shall  not  be  protected  ?  that  the 
tailor,  who  furnishes  him  with  a  new  coat,  or  the  hatter,  that  makes 
him  a  new  hat,  to  go  to  church,  to  attend  a  wedding  or  christening, 
or  to  visit  his  neighbor,  shall  not  be  adequately  protected  "? 

"  Then  there  is  the  essential  article  of  iron — that  is  a  great 
central  interest.  Whether  it  will  require  a  higher  degree  of  pro- 
tection than  it  will  derive  from  such  a  system  as  I  have  sketched, 
I  have  not  sufficient  information  to  decide ;  but  this  I  am  prepared 
to  say,  that  question  will  be  with  the  representatives  of  those  states 
which  are  chiefly  interested;  and,  if  their  iron  is  not  sufficiently 
protected,  they  must  take  the  matter  up  and  make  out  their  case  to 
be  an  exception  to  the  general  arrangement.       ****** 

"  With  me,  from  the  first  moment  I  conceived  the  idea  of  cre- 
ating, at  home,  a  protection  for  the  production  of  whatever  is 
needed  to  supply  the  wants  of  man,  down  to  this  moment,  it  has 
always  been  purely  a  question  of  expediency.  I  never  could  com 
prebend  the  constitutional  objection  which  to  some  gentlemen 
seems  so  extremely  obvious.  I  could  comprehend,  to  be  sure, 
what  these  gentlemen  mean  to  argue,  but  1  never  had  the  least 
belief  in  the  constitutional  objection  which  slept  from  17SS  (or, 
rather,  which  reverses  the  doctrine  of  1780),  till  it  suddenly  waked 
up  in  1820.  Then,  for  the  first  time  since  the  existence  of  the 
constitution,  was  the  doctrine  advanced  that  we  could  not  legiti- 


392  MR.    CLAY    AND    THE 

mately  afford  any  protection  to  our  own  home  industry  against  for- 
eign and  adverse  industry.  I  say,  that  with  me  it  always  was 
a  question  of  expediency  only.  If  the  nation  does  not  want  pro- 
tection, I  certainly  never  would  vote  to  force  it  upon  the  nation  ; 
but  viewing  it  as  a  question  of  expediency  wholly,  I  have  not  hes- 
itated heretofore,  on  the  broad  and  comprehensive  ground  of  ex- 
pediency, to  give  my  assent  to  all  suitable  measures  proposed  with 
a  view  to  that  end. 

"  The  senate  will  perceive  that  I  have  forborne  to  go  into  de- 
tail, especially  in  regard  to  the  urgency  of  reform  and  retrench- 
ment, with  one  or  two  exceptions.  1  have  presented  to  it  a  system 
of  policy  embodied  in  these  resolutions,  containing  those  great 
principles  in  which  I  believe  that  the  interest,  prosperity,  and  hap- 
piness of  the  country,  are  deeply  involved — principles,  the  adop- 
tion of  which  alone  can  place  the  finances  of  the  government  upon 
a  respectable  footing,  and  free  us  from  a  condition  of  servile  de- 
pendence on  the  legislation  of  foreign  nations.  I  have  persuaded 
myself  that  the  system  now  brought  forward  will  be  met  in  a  spirit 
of  candor  a.;  "^f  patriotism,  and  in  the  hope  that  whatever  may 
have  been  the  oiil.  ences  in  the  senate  in  days  past,  we  have  now 
reached  a  period  in  which  we  forget  our  prejudices,  and  agree  to 
bury  our  transient  animosities  deep  at  the  foot  of  the  altar  of  our 
common  country,  and  come  together  as  an  assemblage  of  friends, 
and  brothers,  and  compatriots,  met  in  common  consultation  to  de- 
vise the  best  mode  of  relieving  the  public  distress.  It  is  in  this 
spirit  that  I  have  brought  forward  my  proposed  plan  ;  and  I  trust 
in  God,  invoking  as  I  humbly  do,  the  aid  and  blessing  of  his 
providence,  that  the  senators,  on  all  sides  of  the  chamber  will  lay 
aside  all  party  feelings,  and  more  especially  that  habitual  suspicion 
to  which  we  are  all  more  or  less  prone  (and  from  which  I  profess 
not  to  be  exempted  more  than  other  men),  that  impels  us  to  reject, 
without  examination,  and  to  distrust  whatever  proceeds  from  a 
quarter  we  have  been  in  the  habit  of  opposing.  Let  us  lay  aside 
prejudice  ;  let  us  look  at  the  distresses  of  our  country,  and  these 
alone.  I  trust  that  in  this  spirit  we  shall  examine  these  resolutions, 
and  decide  upon  them  according  to  the  dictates  of  our  own  con- 
sciences, and  in  a  pure  and  patriotic  regard  to  the  welfare  of  our 
country." 

When  the  position  of  Mr.  Clay  at  this  time  is  considered,  as 
being  the  close  of  nearly  forty  years'  labors  in  the  public  service, 
it  can  not  but  be  resrarded  with  interest.  An  additional  interest  is 
cast  over  the  scene,  by  the  melancholy  reflection,  that,  after  having 
fought  the  battles  of  the  democracy  of  the  constitudon  for  twelve 
years,  against  the  excesses  and  abuses  of  its  regal  power,  and  tri- 
umphed at  last,  the  very  man  who  was  bound  by  every  considera- 


TWENTY-SEVENTH   CONGRESS.  393 

tion  of  plighted  faith,  of  honor,  of  patriotism,  to  aid  as  the  chief 
executive  of  the  nation  in  carrying  out  that  system  of  measures 
propounded  by  Mr.  Clay  on  this  occasion,  should  have  devoted 
himself,  with  too  much  success — being  in  possession  of  that  same 
regal  power  which  had  been  the  cause  of  all  the  evils  of  the  coun- 
try— to  thwart  and  defeat  them  !  A  yet  additional  interest  rests  on 
that  occasion,  in  consideration  of  the  fact,  that,  while  Mr.  Clay  was 
laying  out  this  plan  of  public  policy  and  reform  before  the  senate 
of  the  United  States,  on  the  eve  of  his  retirement  for  ever,  he  still 
indulged  the  hope,  that  it  would,  and  the  feeling,  that  it  must,  be 
carried  into  effect ! 

The  twenty-seventh  Congress,  brought  in  with  General  William 
H.  Harrison,  was  elected  by  the  people  under  a  sense  of  the  wrongs 
they  had  suffered  under  the  two  preceding  administrations,  embra- 
cing a  period  of  twelve  years.  The  people  came  forward  with  a 
calm,  but  resolute  determination,  to  rescue  the  country,  and  achieved 
a  triumph,  if  not  unparalleled,  yet  the  most  decided  of  any  presi- 
dential canvass,  through  which  the  nation  had  ever  passed.  It 
was  a  Congress  of  great  ability — of  high  and  patriotic  purpose, 
apparently  conscious  of  the  responsible  mission  to  which  they  were 
appointed,  and  resolved  faithfully  to  fulfil  it.  They  had  more  im- 
portant business  coming  before  them,  and  did  more,  than  any  other 
Congress  ever  assembled,  in  a  time  of  peace.  What  they  left  un- 
done, in  the  way  of  reform,  was  not  their  fault,  for  reasons  already 
noticed.  They  came  into  power  with  a  bankrupt  treasury,  a  de- 
fective revenue,  a  ruined  currency,  trade  and  manufactures  pros- 
trate, and  a  people  disheartened  by  a  long  train  of  public  and  pri- 
vate misfortunes.  They  were  expected  to  find  a  remedy  for  these 
disasters,  earlier  than  was  possible,  even  if  they  had  not  been 
doomed  to  encounter  the  regal  assumptions  of  a  faithless  execu- 
tive. The  wide-spread  and  universal  ruin  of  a  twelve-years'  mis- 
rule, could  not  be  repaired  in  so  many  months.  Mr.  Clay,  in  his 
speech  at  Lexington,  of  June  9,  1842,  said  :  "  The  prosperity  of 
the  country  has  been  impaired  by  causes  operadng  through  several 
years,  and  it  will  not  be  restored  in  a  day  or  a  year — perhaps  not 
in  a  period  less  than  it  has  taken  to  destroy  it."  Nevertheless,  in 
fidelity  of  purpose,  and  vigor  of  undertaking,  the  twenty-seventh 
Congress  has  not  been  surpassed  in  the  history  of  the  national 
legislature,  though  the  people  were  defrauded  of  the  great  design 
of  their  appointment. 


394  MR.    CLAY    AND    THE 

The  great  object  of  the  political  revolution  of  1S40,  was  to  intro- 
duce reform  in  the  government,  and  retrench  its  extravagant  ex- 
penditures, as  well  as  to  re-establish  that  system  of  policy,  which, 
from  1S24  as  an  epoch,  had  put  the  nation  in  a  career  of  unexam- 
pled prosperity,  and  which  had  been  broken  down  by  the  admin- 
istration of  General  Jackson,  on  the  ruins  of  which  Mr.  Van  Buren 
and  his  immense  corps  of  officials  were  installed.  The  leaders  of 
the  Jackson  regime,  under  Mr.  Van  Buren,  including  him  as  chief, 
were  suspected  and  accused  by  their  opponents  of  aiming  to  estab- 
lish a  system  of  despotism.  The  evidence  of  this  plot  against  the 
liberties  of  the  republic,  it  was  thouglit,  was  disclosed  in  the  two 
comprehensive  schemes  of  the  sub-treasury,  and  the  plan  brought 
forward  by  the  secretary  of  war  (Mr.  Poinsett)  for  the  reorganiza- 
tion of  the  militia  of  the  country.  This  belief  was  supported  by 
the  following  considerations  :  First,  the  extravagant  expenditures 
of  the  government  had  reached  such  a  pitch,  that  they  must  be 
greatly  reduced,  or  the  power  of  the  people  must  be  suppressed  by 
a  new  system.  The  former,  it  was  said,  could  not  be  done,  be- 
cause the  adhesive  principle  of  the  party  in  power  was  the  spoils 
of  office  ;  and  it  was,  therefore,  necessary  to  resort  to  the  second. 
Next,  it  was  alleged — apparently  with  great  force — that  the  sub- 
treasury  and  the  new  army  scheme,  taken  together,  were  the  most 
sure  implements  of  despotism  that  could  be  invented,  and  if  once 
established,  all  complaints  of  the  people  might  be  securely  defied. 
The  character  of  the  sub-treasury  is  known.  But  this  new  plan 
for  organizing  the  militia  of  the  country,  having  been  suddenly 
dropped,  is  little  understood.     It  was  in  substance  as  follows: — 

1.  A  dissolution  of  the  old  militia  system.  2.  Raising  an  army 
of  two  hundred  thousand  men.  3.  Withdrawing  them  from  the 
authority  of  the  states,  and  putting  them  under  control  of  the  pres- 
ident of  the  United  States.  4.  To  place  them  under  a  rigorous 
martial  code,  to  be  administered  by  courts-martial,  as  in  all  stand- 
ing armies.  5.  It  was  to  be  composed  of  citizen-soldiers,  and 
to  have  all  the  rights  of  political  franchise.  6.  Any  disrespectful 
language  in  this  army  toward  the  president  of  the  United  States, 
or  other  high  public  functionaries,  was  to  be  tried  and  punished 
by  courts-martial.  7.  The  courts-martial  to  act  under  the  author- 
ity and  orders  of  the  president  of  the  United  States,  as  comman- 
der-in-chief of  the  army.  8.  This  army  to  be  under  a  special 
code  of  laws,  to  be  enacted  by  Congress,  and  administered  by  the 


TWENTY-SEVENTH  CONGRESS.  395 

president,  through  courts-martial.  9.  Every  soldier  to  arm  and 
equip  himself,  and  be  under  strict  subordination.  10.  The  presi- 
dent might  call  the  "  active  corps"  into  service  anywhere,  at 
any  time,  and  augment  their  force  by  draughts  on  the  main  body,  at 
his  discretion.  11.  The  constitutional  rule,  that  the  authorities 
of  the  states  might  call  on  the  president  of  the  United  States,  for 
aid  in  suppressing  insurrections,  &c.,  was  reversed  by  this  plan, 
which  would  authorize  the  president  to  move  this  army  into  any 
part  of  the  country,  as  he  might  think  proper,  and  turn  the  arms 
of  the  sovereign  states  against  their  own  authorities,  backed  by  the 
forces  of  the  Union.  12.  All  the  federal  functionaries,  through- 
out the  Union,  would,  as  a  consequence  of  this  system,  be  sus- 
tained by  this  armed  force.  13.  These  citizen-soldiers  were  to 
be  under  the  command  of  the  superior  officers  of  the  regular 
army. 

This  plan,  the  details  of  which,  as  above  presented,  it  is  believed, 
are  fairly  deducible  from  it,  was  recommended  by  Mr.  Van  Buren, 
in  his  annual  message  of  1839,  as  follows  : — 

"  The  present  condition  of  the  defences  of  our  principal  sea- 
ports and  navy-yards,  as  represented  by  the  accoinjni/njhig  report 
of  the  secretary  of  war,  calls  for  the  early  and  serious  attenlum  of 
Congress;  and  as  connecting  itself  intimately  ivith  this  subject,  I 

CAN  NOT  RECOMMEND  TOO  STRONGLY  TO  YOUR  CONSIDERATION 
THE  PLAN  SUBMITTED  BY  THAT  OFFICER  FOR  THE  ORGANIZA- 
TION OF   THE   MILITIA  OF   THE   UnITED   StATES." 

The  impression,  however,  made  upon  the  public  mind,  by  the 
disclosure  of  this  plan,  caused  it  immediately  to  be  abandoned. 
But  there  it  is,  a  part  of  the  history  of  Mr.  Van  Buren's  adminis- 
tration, although,  not  having  been  urged  any  further,  it  has  been 
well  nigh  forgotten.  They  were  forced  to  be  content  for  the  time 
with  the  sub-treasury,  which  was  carried  in  1S40,  and  repealed  in 
1841. 

Although  the  twenty-seventh  Congress  went  earnestly  to  work 
to  accomplish  the  reforms  and  retrenchments,  which  were  so  much 
needed,  their  success  was  but  partial,  in  consequence  of  the  defec- 
tion and  opposition  of  the  vice-president,  then  acting  as  chief  mag- 
istrate. Their  committees  of  investigation,  however,  made  some 
remarkable  discoveries,  and  clearly  showed,  that  the  increased  and 
enormous  expenditures  of  the  government,  during  the  administra- 
tions of  General  Jackson  and  Mr.  Van  Buren,  resulted  from  a 
system  of  favoritism,  prodigality,  and  corruption,  before  unknown 


396  MR.    CLAY    AND    THE 

in  the  history  of  the  country.     The  contingent  expenses  of  Con- 
gress had  become  scandalous  in  amount  and  detail.* 

The  grand  result  of  reducing  the  appropriations  to  a  little 
over  sixteen  millions  a  year,  as  shown  in  the  note  below,  is  suffi- 

*  For  stationery  used  by  the  25th  Congress,  the  first  under  Mr.  Van  Buren,  will 
be  found  such  items  as  the  following  in  the  report  of  one  of  the  committees  on  re- 
trenchment (by  Mr.  Summers),  2d  session,  27th  (congress,  house  Doc.  No.  30 : — 


For  3,079  reams  envelope  pa- 
per  $12,603  25 

3,610    do.    quarto  post.   21,059  25 

2,316    do.    foolscap 9,951   25 

172    do.    note..   1,.559  50 

493  gross  of  steel  pens. .     4,569  39 
83,700  quills 3,953   12 


For  wafers $1,332  01 

ink,  15  barrels 528  50 

inkstands 921  00 

seals 1,080  00 

pencils 562  00 

folders 615  00 

twine 312  72 

making  of  pens 448  00  I  1,197  memorandum  books        746  87 

sealing-wax 3,931   62  • 

tape 2,739  30  Total $69,514  78 

106  dozen  penknives...     2,602  00  1  

Which,  divided  among  242  members  of  the  House,  shows,  that  the  cost  for  sta- 
tionery, for  each  member  of  the  25th  Congress,  for  a  period  usually  of  about  nine 
months,  was  $287  25. 

How  much  is  the  average  annual  cost  to  professional  men,  lawyers,  for  exam- 
ple, for  the  above-named  articles  of  stationery  ?  Probably  not  over  $20  a  year — 
for  nine  months,  $15 — which  leaves  $272  25  for  each  member  of  the  house  of 
representatives,  in  the  25th  Congress,  unaccounted  for  to  the  people — in  all, 
$65,884  78 — a  pretty  round  sum  of  waste  for  one  branch  of  the  national  legisla- 
ture, on  the  above-named  articles. 

How  many  penknives  did  they  use  severally?  Divide  106  dozen,  or  1,272,  by 
242,  and  the  answer  is  5-62.  The  average  price  of  these  penknives,  it  will  be 
seen,  was  $2  04  and  a  fraction  each,  which,  of  course,  makes  a  bill  of  a  little  less 
than  $12,  to  supply  each  member  of  the  25th  Congress  in  penknives  for  nine 
months.  His  scalin^-wax  cost  somewhat  over  $16 ;  his  quarto  post  paper,  $80 
and  some  cents  ;  and  so  on. 

It  is  supposed  the  excessive  price  of  these  articles  results  in  the  same  way,  by 
which  the  clerk  of  the  house  of  representatives  of  the  same  Congress,  Mr.  Gar- 
land, contracted  with  a  favorite  of  the  president,  domiciliating  at  the  time  in  New 
York,  to  furnish  stationery  to  the  amount  of  $25,000,  whereon  the  said  favorite 
cleared  a  profit  of  $7,000  to  himself,  over  and  above  a  fair  profit  in  trade,  as  was 
proved  and  reported  to  the  27th  Congress.  In  this  way,  of  course,  a  penknife, 
which,  in  a  fair  market,  cost  $1  50  would  cost  the  people  over  $2;  and  so  with 
all  the  other  articles.  But  when  there  happen  to  be  two  intermediate  agents,  each 
to  make  an  extra  profit  of  33|  per  cent,  on  the  same  articles,  that  helps  to  run  up 
a  bill  fast.     It  would  be  difficult  to  account  for  these  bills,  except  in  such  ways. 

It  appears  from  Mr.  Summers's  report,  that  the  whole  contingent  expenses  of  the 
house  of  representatives  rose  from  $106,000,  in  the  18th  Congress,  till  they  at- 
tained a  maximum  in  the  25th  Congress,  of  $595,000,  increasing  nearly  6  to  1  in 
sixteen  years. 

It  also  appears,  that  the  contingent  expenses  of  the  senate  for  the  year  1838, 
under  Mr.  Van  Buren,  were  greater  by  the  sum  of  $86,000,  than  for  1828,  under 
Mr.  J.  Q.  Adams;  and  greater,  by  $24,000,  than  for  the  whole  four  years,  under 
Mr.  Adams.  A  like  result  turns  up  in  comparing  the  contingent  expenses  of  the 
house  for  the  same  periods,  viz. :  that  the  aggregate,  during  Mr.  Adams's  fcnr 
years,  was  less,  by  $89,000,  than  the  same  item  for  the  one  year,  1838,  under  Mr. 
Van  Buren.  (Compare  No.  17,  house  document,  1st  session,  26th  Congress,  with 
No.  39,  house  document,  1st  session,  24th  Congress.) 

From  the  beginning  of  1836  to  1841,  the  number  of  steamboats  and  sail  craft 
employed  in  the  transportation  service  for  the  Florida  war,  was  737,  for  which  a 
very  extravagant  hire  was  generally  paid.  About  fifty  of  these  are  named  in 
house  document  No.  458,  2d  session,  27th  Congress,  and  their  rates  of  hire  speci- 
fied. The  following  are  specimens  :  The  steamboat  John  Crowell,  estimated  to 
be  woilh  $15,000,  was   hired  at  $300  a  day,  provided  for  and  insured,  till    the 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    CONGRESS.  397 

cient  evidence  of  what  the  twenty-seventh  Congress  achieved,  in 
the  way  of  retrenchment  and  reform.  They  found  every  depart- 
ment of  the  government  more  or  less  ill  organized,  inefficient,  ex- 
travagant, and  corrupt,  exerting  a  most  pernicious  influence  on  the 

compensation  amounted  to  $82,555.  The  Reindeer,  42  days,  at  $175  a  day — being 
$7,350.  The  Georgiana,  32  days,  at  $200  a  daj — $6,400.  The  Charleston,  10 
months,  at  $4,400  a  month— $44,000.  Tlie  Mobile  was  paid  $11,625  for  25  days. 
The  Minerva,  73  days,  at  $300  a  day.— $21,900.  The  Merchant,  85  days,  at  $450 
a  day— $38,250. 

Many  other  vessels  were  hired  for  short  periods,  at  rates,  which,  on  settlement, 
quadrupled  the  price  at  which  they  might  have  been  purchased  in  the  outset,  so 
that  much  money  would  have  been  saved,  if  they  had  been  bought  and  manned, 
and  then  burnt  in  the  end. 

Grant's  concentric  wheel  wagon  cost  the  government  $2,363  50,  of  which  Mr. 
Grant  was  paid  $654  50  for  superintending  the  construction  of  it,  and  $15  was 
paid  for  engraving  plates  on  the  wheels,  to  travel  in  the  sands  of  Florida. 

The  purchase  and  delivery  of  206  oxen  was  made  to  cost  $12,187  20 — for  the 
oxen,  $9,170  00;  to  the  agent,  $1,980  00;  and  for  expenses  in  the  transaction, 
$1,037  20. 

A  house  at  Picolata  was  rented  at  $3,600  a  year.  For  30  saddles,  $50  each 
was  paid.     For  12  saddles,  $87  50  each. 

At  Pilatka,  in  1840,  when  the  end  of  the  war  was  every  day  expected,  more  than 
$100,000  was  expended  in  public  buildings,  on  private  lands,  when  there  was 
government  lands  hard  by.     It  was  of  course  sacrificed. 

The  foregoing  items  of  extravagance  are  hastily  selected  from  heaps  of  evidence 
of  the  same  class  brought  before  the  27th  Congress,  by  which  it  is  proved,  that  the 
Florida  war  was  generally  carried  on,  in  whole  and  in  particular,  at  a  rate  of  most 
astounding  prodigality.  All  the  public  agents  in  these  transactions,  from  the 
Treasury  Department  at  Washington,  down  to  the  last  recipient  of  the  public 
money,  were  perfectly  familiar  with  this  daily  round  of  facts,  for  a  course  of  years. 
Can  it  be  imagined,  that  in  any  state  of  society,  however  corrupt,  such  extrava- 
gance and  waste  would  be  tolerated,  under  the  eyes  of  so  many  agents,  if  there 
was  no  collusion  among  them,  and  if  they  did  not  all  profit  more  or  less  by  it  ?  Do 
not  these  facts  reasonably  account  for  the  protracted  period  of  that  war,  when  so 
much  money  was  to  be  made  out  of  it  by  all  engaged  ? 

The  removal  of  16,533  Creek  Indians  was  made  to  cost  the  government 
$590,448  58.  It  was  proved  pretty  fairly,  by  the  committee  on  public  expendi- 
tures, that  these  16,533  Indians  might  have  been  removed  for  $186,530,  thus  ma- 
king a  clear  saving,  in  this  single  transaction,  honestly  done,  of  $303,909  42 — 
nearly  two  thirds  of  the  actual  cost.     (Doc.  No.  458,  2d  Sess.  27th  Cong.) 

It  is  proved  in  house  Doc.  No.  454,  2d  session,  27th  Congress,  that  Capt.  Buck- 
ner  was  paid  $37,749  for  doing  nothing,  after  having  been  paid  a  very  exorbitant 
price  for  what  he  did  do,  in  removing  Indians ;  and  the  most  remarkable  part  of 
the  disclosure  is,  that  a  high  public  functionary  received  $18,000  of  this  as  a  loan 
from  Captain  Buckner,  apparently  for  his  company  and  presence  at  the  treasury 
department  when  the  requisition  was  being  made  out.  Whether  such  company 
silenced  the  scruples  of  the  auditor,  this  deponent  can  not  say.  The  evidence  be- 
fore the  committee  standeth  thus :  Witness  (Captain  Buckner)  asked — "  What  he 
could  do  for  him  ?"  Answer.  "  Witness  could  loan  him  some  money.  Where- 
upon witness  agreed  to  loan  him  $18,000." 

All  these  accounts  were  allowed  at  the  treasury  department ! 

It  is  also  proved  that  Captain  Collins  was  intrusted  with  large  sums  of  money, 
as  disbursing  agent,  to  the  aggregate  of  $582,290,  after  he  had  proved  himself  a 
defaulter  to  one  third  of  this  amount,  and  that  the  government  lost  by  him  in  the 
end  the  sum  of  $215,369.  If  settlements  had  been  insisted  on  according  to  law, 
it  would  have  been  impossible,  in  any  case  of  the  most  wilful  fraud,  to  lose  more 
than  a  small  fraction  of  this  amount.     (Ho.  Doc,  No.  453,  2d  Sess.,  27th  Cong.) 

Speaking  moderately,  it  may  be  presumed,  from  the  volumes  of  evidence  of  this 
description  that  were  filed  by  the  27th  Conjress,  that  by  an  honest  and  pru- 
dent administration  of  these  affairs,  the  Florida  war  might  have  been  brought  to 
a  close,  and  the  Indian  tribes  all  removed,  at  one  half  the  actual  cost  to  the  coun- 


398  MR.    CLAY    AND    THE 

morals  of  the  people,  and  squandering  the  public  funds  by  millions. 
The  expenditures  of  the  government,  by  such  means,  had  been 
tripled  since  the  administration  of  Mr.  J.  Q.  Adams  ;  but  the 
twenty-seventh  Congress,  by  the  application  of  retrenchment,  with 

try.  Moreover,  from  what  has  transpired,  there  is  also  a  reasonable  presumption 
that  the  period  of  the  Florida  war  might  have  been  abridged  by  several  years. 

Can  any  one  suppose  there  was  no  collusion,  no  connivance  among  those  who 
had  the  responsibility  in  these  great  concerns,  for  the  advantage,  pecuniary  or 
political,  that  might  accrue  to  them  personally  ?  With  some  the  profit  was  pecu- 
niary, with  others  political. 

The  sub-treasury  system — the  principle  of  wliich  is,  to  trust  individuals  with  the 
keepin?  of  the  public  funds — was  long  in  practice,  under  the  administrations  of 
General  Jackson  and  Mr.  Van  Buren,  before  it  was  established  by  law  in  1840. 
It  is  not  easy  to  collect  an  exact  account  of  the  losses  to  the  people  by  this  sys- 
tem ;  but  from  the  reports  of  Mr-  Secretary  Woodbury — a  reluctant  witness — of 
1834,  1838,  and  1839,  on  this  subject,  the  following  result  is  obtained  from  his 
somewhat  mystified  statements,  in  connexion  with  other  facts  that  have  transpired, 
viz. :  that  the  government,  since  its  foundation,  had  lost  by  banks,  $857,890  85; 
and  by  individuals,  in  the  various  forms  of  trust,  about  $15,000,000. 

It  is  now  ascertained,  that  the  loss  by  individuals  in  Mr.  Van  Buren's  four 
years,  as  the  result  of  his  system  of  sub-treasury,  was  about  $5,000,000,  if  what 
has  since  been  developed  under  the  operation  of  that  system,  and  through  his  ap- 
pointees, is  included.  The  annual  aggregate  of  frauds,  therefore,  of  Mr.  Van  Bu- 
ren's sub-treasury  system,  may  be  put  down  at  $1,250,000. 

It  is  somewhat  remarkable,  that  the  account  between  the  government  and  the 
United  States  bank,  as  to  loss  and  profit  in  all  transactions  for  forty  years,  stands 
thus:  Loss  to  government,  0;  profit  to  government,  $1,100,000,  for  premium  on 
stocks,  besides  dividends,  and  the  gratuitous  functions  of  the  bank  as  fiscal  agent 
of  the  government  for  the  said  forty  years. 

All  must  remember  the  disclosures  forced  from  Mr.  Secretary  Woodbury,  under 
Mr.  Van  Buren's  administration,  regarding  the  frequency,  character,  and  great 
amount  of  defalcations  under  the  sub-treasury,  and  the  concurrent  proofs  brought 
before  the  public,  of  executive  indulgence  toward  the  offenders,  in  continuing 
them  in  office  after  their  defalcations  were  proved — all  for  partisan,  political 
objects. 

The  enormities  that  were  practised  in  the  New  York  customhouse,  were  prodigious. 
The  defalcations  of  Swartwout,  Hoyt,  &  Co. — amounting  to  about  one  million  and  a 
half,  seem  to  have  veiled  the  minor  frauds.  In  three  years,  1838,  1839,  and  1840, 
George  A.  Wasson  received  $94,430  92  for  cartage  and  labor — nearly  half  for 
cartage — effected  chiefly  by  charging  for  each  package,  31  j  to  50  cents,  which 
was  the  price  for  a  load — in  that  way  making  a  load  run  up  to  five  or  ten  dollars, 
according  to  the  number  of  packages.  The  stationery  and  printing,  under  Mr. 
Hoyt,  for  1838,  '39,  '40,  and  first"  quarter  of  1841,  cost  $51,703  22— averaging 
$275  76  a  year  to  each  person  employed,  being  nearly  double  the  average  cost  of 
stationery  for  each  member  of  the  house  of  representatives  in  the  25th  Congress, 
that  being  $287  for  two  years.  It  was  by  allowing  $22  a  gross  for  steel  pens, 
when  they  could  be  bought  for  $1  50 ;  $3  50  a  peck  for  sand,  the  fair  price  being 
125  cents;  $80  a  ream  for  paper,  worth  $15;  $12  for  one  card  of  Perryan  pens, 
or  $1  50  for  each  pen;   Jtc,  &.c.     No  difficulty  in  making  it  up  in  that  way. 

The  revenue  collected  in  the  first  year  of  Jonathan  Thompson,  1825,  was 
$15,754,827;  employed  142  men,  at  a  cost  of  $211,471 ;  or  at  the  rate  of  1-34  per 
cent.  The  revenue  collected  by  Mr.  Hoyt,  in  1840,  was  $7,591,760;  men  em- 
ployed, 470,  at  a  cost  of  $563,829 ;   or  at  the  rate  of  7-42  per  cent. 

In  addition  to  the  collector's  salary,  Mr.  Hoyt,  in  violation  of  law,  as  alleged 
by  the  committee  on  public  expenditures,  took  to  himself,  in  all,  $29,883  36  for 
storage  of  merchandise  in  buildings  rented  on  his  private  account,  while  the  gov- 
ernment is  charged  $29,294  24  for  salaries  of  storekeeper,  clerks,  and  inspectors, 
and  for  stationery,  employed  and  used  in  said  buildings. 

Mr.  Hoyt  was  reported  to  Congress  by  the  secretary  of  the  treasury,  as  a  de- 
faulter for  $226,295  31.  But  Mr.  Hoyt,  anticipating  this,  charged  the  government 
(with  his  own  hand,  his  clerk  refusing)  $201,580,  that  is,  1  per  cent,  on  $20,158,- 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    CONGRESS.  399 

a  salutary  earnestness,  brought  the  expenditures  back  again — 
fiilhj  had-,  if  the  growth  of  the  country  be  considered.  Boldly 
did  they  undertake  to  apply  remedies  to  existing  evils,  and  the 
result  is  announced  to  the  world.     They  spared  not  the  estimates 

000  paid  over  by  him  to  the  orders  of  the  secretary  of  the  treasury — that  is,  1  per 
cent,  for  the  bankin?  part  of  the  collector's  functions — a  part  of  his  duty. 

In  two  years  and  four  months,  Mr.  Butler,  district  attorney,  was  paid  by  Mr. 
Hoyt,  collector,  for  services,  $(j2,(590  50.  Mr.  Hoyt's  gleanings,  it  would  seem, 
were  somewhat  less  than  a  quarter  of  a  million  for  about  tliree  years'  service. 
(House  documents  Nos.  202  and  t)69,  2d  session,  27th  Congress.) 

The  branch  mints  were  designed,  especially  the  one  at  New  Orleans,  to  make 
gold  flow  up  the  Missis.iippi.  It  seems  they  have  rather  tended  to  make  it  flow  out 
into  the  sea.  That  at  New  Orleans  cost  $554,470.  The  three  branches  cost 
$822,457.  They  were  established  in  1838,  and  previous  to  1842  had  coined 
$2,884,708.  The  Philadelphia  mmt  cost  $209,230,  and  in  1836  alone  coined 
$7,764,900.  The  cost  of  coining  at  the  branch  mints  has  been  28  cents  and  3 
mills  for  each  dollar.  The  cost  uf  coining  at  Philadelphia  13  cents  and  9  mills  for 
one  hundred  dollars. 

Items  expended  on  the  New  Orleans  mint :  $8,099  for  four  bath-houses,  flagging 
yard,  and  paving  side-walk;  $3,846  for  paving  yard;  $1,700  for  seven  baths  and 
one  water-closet ;  $818  for  finishing  water-closets;  &c.,  &c.  The  voucher  list 
of  expenditures,  numbering  272,  is  a  curiosity — especially  edifying  to  those  who 
pay  for  it.     (House  Doc.  No.  462,  2d  session,  27th  Congress.) 

From  house  document  No.  989,  2d  session,  27th  Congress,  it  appears,  that  the 
cost  of  mail-bags,  from  1831  to  1841,  was  $336,000;  that  Mr.  Jewett,  of  Ohio, 
contractor,  was  paid  $68,124  13  for  4,782  bags;  that,  in  November,  1840,  there 
were  on  his  ( Jewett's)  hands  4,020  bags,  not  wanted,  which  cost  $65,000  ;  that  a 
large  overplus  was  in  the  hands  of  other  contractors ;  that  bags  could  be  got  at 
50  per  cent,  less  than  was  paid  in  those  years ;  that,  for  blanks,  $300,000  was  paid 
between  1829  and  1841,  generally  at  about  50  per  cent,  more  than  fair  price,  leav- 
ing a  supply  on  hand  for  twenty  years  to  come  ;  that  storage  for  these  surplus  ar- 
ticles was  charged  and  allowed ;  that,  by  these  and  other  frauds,  the  expenditures 
of  the  post-oflice  department  were  made  to  exceed  its  revenue,  one  year,  by 
$386,759  19,  and  another  year  by  $220,000,  thus  requiring  special  appropriations 
out  of  the  revenue  from  customs  and  public  lands ;  that  Cyrus  Barton,  Concord, 
N.  H.,  for  blanks,  from  1836  to  1841,  received  $13,927  14;  Beals  &  Greene,  Bos- 
ton, Mass.,  from  1829  to  1832,  for  do.,  received  $51,732  76;  Paine  &  Clark,  New 
York,  from  1836  to  1841,  fordo.,  received  $18,883  81;  S.  Penn,  Jr.,  Louisville, 
Ky.,  for  do.,  from  1830  to  1841,  received  $26,942  58;  S.  Medary,  Columbus,  Ohio, 
in  1836,  for  do.,  received  $17,546  34;  &c.,  &c. 

All  these,  and  other  like  favors,  "  for  being  always  at  their  post,  actively  en- 
gaged"— "  slopping  at  no  sacrifice  that  would  insure  success" — "  in  promoting  the 
interests  of  the  noble  cause" — which  "  heartily  entitled  them  to  executive  favor" 
— &c.,  as  stated  in  letters  to  the  president.     (See  Doc.  989,  as  above.) 

The  same  committee  (on  public  expenditures)  speak  of  the  establishment  of 
many  new  mail-routes  and  postoffices,  not  required,  at  great  expense,  for  the  ben- 
efit of  partisan  favorites,  and  of  the  "  deep,  dark,  and  unfathomable  sinks,"  out 
of  which  these  facts  were  fished,  where  many  more  of  the  same  kind  yet  abide, 
which  could  not  be  hooked  up. 

From  document  No.  756  of  the  house,  2d  session,  27th  Congress,  it  appears, 
that  the  commissioning  of  ships,  and  the  increase  of  officers  in  the  navy,  had  been 
at  the  discretion  of  the  executive;  that  the  expenses  of  the  navy  had  been  doubled 
in  ten  years ;  that  naval  officers  had  been  multiplied  beyond  former  example, 
without  sufficient  cause;  that  the  number  in  1835  was  1,05],  and  in  1842,  was 
1,512,  when  365,  with  an  aggregate  pay  of  $350,000,  were  "absent  on  leave,  or 
waiting  orders,"  that  is,  doing  nothing  ;  that  many  had  been  thus  unemployed  for 
ten,  twelve,  or  fourteen  years,  receiving  pay,  and  being  promoted. 

It  also  appears,  that,  from  1834  to  1841,  seventy-two  naval  officers,  at  different 
times,  had  been  detailed  into  the  "  coast  survey"  service,  and  while  thus  occupied, 
received  double  pay;  that  the  revenue  cutter  service,  being  at  the  discretion  of  the 
executive,  rose  from  an  annual  cost  of  $163,755  in  1830,  to  $274,803  in  1837, 


400  MR.    CLAY    AND    THE 

sent  in  by  the  executive  departments,  but  cut  them  down  by- 
millions. 

The  cases  to  which  the  knife  of  excision  was  appHed,  are  too 
numerous  for  specification. 

wliile  the  revenue  collected  had  decreased  about  one  third;  that  the  expenses  of 
the  land  office  rose  in  one  year  from  $23,500  to  $108,750,  and  remained  in  1841 
at  $98,500,  when  the  land  revenue  was  only  $1,400,000  ;  and  that  the  expenses 
of  the  army  had  risen  from  $2,100,935  in  1829,  to  $4,197,028  in  1841. 

The  above  instances  of  seventy-two  naval  officers  detailed  in  the  "  coast-sur- 
vey" service,  with  extra  pay,  is  an  example  of  extra  allowances.  This  license, 
unwarranted  by  law,  had  pervaded  the  army  and  navy,  and  crept  into  other 
branches  of  the  public  service,  to  such  an  extent,  as  to  amount,  in  the  a^sregate, 
to  scarcely,  if  at  all  less  than  a  million  a  year.  It  v,'as  a  germ  of  corruption,  of 
alarming  growth,  corresponding  with  the  plurality  system  under  the  British  gov- 
ernment, which  the  reformers  of  that  nation  are  fast  breaking  down,  and  which 
has  always  been  allowed  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  enormities  in  the  British  em.pire. 

Expenditui-es  without  authority  of  law,  to  a  great  extent,  were  made  in  the 
progress  of  the  two  administrations  that  preceded  that  of  J84J  to  1845.  A  very 
licentious  practice  of  voting  large  contingent  funds,  for  the  different  departments  of 
government,  had  obtained,  which  presented  temptations,  and  opened  a  floodgate 
of  corruption,  to  the  hisfher  and  lower  public  functionaries.  Many  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  had  in  this  way  been  put  at  the  discretion  of  the  administration,  no 
small  portion  of  which  was  squandered  for  most  unsuitable  partisan  or  private 
ends.  The  sacred  deposites  of  trust-funds  of  various  descriptions,  were  invaded 
and  exhausted,  without  sanction  of  law. 

The  new  j)ractice  of  having  large  outstanding  appropriations,  lying  over  from 
one  year  to  another,  which  often  amounted  to  many  millions,  enough  in  some  cases 
for  the  annual  expenditures  of  the  government,  was  introduced  and  carried  on, 
and  was  often  abused  by  applying  such  appropriations  to  objects  not  designated  by 
law,  at  the  discretion  of  the  administration.  In  this  way,  there  was  never  any 
want  of  iunds,  when  a  partisan  object  required  it,  or  a  private  whim  was  to  be 
gratified,  or  favorites  wanted  patronage. 

Secret  and  partisan  emissaries  were  by  this  means  sent  out,  under  the  guise  of 
government  agents,  for  this,  that,  or  the  other  object,  the  chief  errand  being  con- 
fidential. It  was  only  necessary  to  have  a  nominal  government  desien,  though 
unauthorized  by  law,  to  find  an  apology  for  drawins;  on  contingent  or  trust  funds, 
or  on  dormant  outstanding  appropriations.  Special  agents,  almost  without  num- 
ber, were,  from  time  to  time,  put  in  commission  for  home  or  foreign  missions,  on 
the  basis  of  this  practice. 

Mr.  George  Plitt  was  sent  abroad,  as  postoffice  agent,  under  Amos  Kendall,  at 
$16  a  day,  till  the  expenses  ran  up  to  $9,C66  64,  the  payment  of  which  was  sanc- 
tioned by  ]Mr.  Van  Buren,  as  president,  without  authority  of  law.  In  the  same 
manner  three  young  men  were  sent  out  in  1839,  by  Mr.  Poinsett,  secretary  of  war, 
to  the  cavalry  school,  at  Saumer,  in  France,  and  three  more  in  1840 — all  without 
authority  of  law.  Americans  sent  to  Europe  to  learn  to  ride  and  manage  a  horse, 
at  the  public  expense,  at  the  caprice  of  a  public  functionary,  and  without  legisla- 
tive sanction ! 

A  partisan  press  also  experienced  the  benefits  of  contingent  and  disposable 
funds  in  the  hands  of  the  executive  and  his  agents.  In  the  two  years  of  1838 
and  1839,  Mr.  Kendall,  postmaster-general,  contrived  to  run  up  bills  for  adver- 
tising and  printing  in  one  newspaper  office,  the  Statesman,  Columbus,  Ohio,  to  the 
amount  of  $9,848  21.  (Blue  Book.)  And  so  it  was  done  all  over  the  Union,  by 
the  different  executive  departments  at  Washington. 

It  should  be  observed,  that  the  quotations  here  made,  showing  extravagance  and 
corruption  in  the  government,  are  only  a  few  selections,  extracted  from  volumin- 
ous and  authentic  public  documents,  furnished  principally  by  that  laborious  and 
indefatigable  committee  on  public  expenditures,  whose  toils  in  the  twenty -seventh 
Congress  brought  so  much  of  concealed  frauds  to  the  light  of  day.  The  number 
and  extent  of  them  are  hardly  credible,  the  entire  of  which  will  readily  account 
for  the  extraordinary  and  otherwise  unaccountable  expenditures  of  the  two  admin- 
istrations, from  whose  books  the  facts  and  figures  come. 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    CONGRESS.  401 

Some  millions  were  lopped  off  from  the  expenses  of  the  army, 
by  an  act  which  reorganized  and  reduced  it  largely,  and  abolished 
numerous  sinecures,  and  the  corrupt  custom  of  extra  allowances, 
which  sometimes  exceeded  regular  pay,  and  which,  as  a  whole, 

The  expenses  of  the  government  down  to  the  end  of  Mr.  JefTerson's  administra- 
tion, appear  to   have  been  frugal  and  exemplary.      The  cost  of   Wasliington's 

administration,  comprehending  eight  years,  was  only $15,892,188 

Of  John  Adams's  four  years 21,450,351 

Of  Jefferson's  eight  do 41,300,788 

As  the  war  with  Great  Britain  came  under  Mr.  Madison's  terms  of  office,  eight 
years,  the  expenses  were  of  course  extraordinary,  and  mounted  up  to  $144,684,939 

Monroe's  eight  years 104,463,400 

J.  Q.  Adams's  four  do 50,501,914 

It  may  be  thought  that  the  expenses  of  Mr.  Monroe's  and  Mr.  J.  Q.  Adams's  ad- 
ministrations, were  disproportionately  large,  as  compared  with  the  earlier  days  of 
the  republic.  But-  the  growth  of  the  country  may  account  for  a  part  of  it,  and 
the  grander  projects  of  the  nation,  suggested  by  the  experience  of  the  war,  for  the 
other  part. 

But  it  is  somewhat  startling  to  find  the  expenses  of  General  Jackson's  adminis- 
tration of  eight  years  mounting  up  to $  1 45,792,735 

being  greater  than  the  cost  of  Mr.  Madison's  ei<jht  years,  which  had  the  war  with 
Great  Britain  on  hand.  But  yet  more  startling  is  the  announcement  of  the  fact,  that 
Mr.  Van  Buren's  administration  of  only  four  years,  cost  the  nation.  .$140,585,321 

In  eight  years,  at  this  rate,  it  would  have  been 281,170,642 

There  are  no  apparent  reasons,  aside  from  the  facts  disclosed  by  the  investi- 
gating committees  of  the  twenty-seventh  Congress — nor  are  these  very  satisfac- 
tory— for  this  rapid  and  amazing  increase  of  national  expenditures.  Besides,  that 
the  Florida  war  was  unnecessarily  protracted  and  unnecessarily  expensive,  as  has 
been  shown,  by  the  corruption  and  frauds  involved  in  it,  that,  even  as  it  was,  will 
not  account  for  but  a  small  fraction  of  this  great  excess  of  expenditures  above  all 
former  example. 

Appropriations  are  generally  in  excess  of  the  expenditures,  with  a  view  of 
grantin?  a  liberal  supply.  The  appropriations  of  the  twenty-seventh  Congress 
for  1842,  being  the  last  half  of  one  fiscal  year  and  the  first  half  of  another,  fal- 
ling in  1842,  were  $21,603,784  58. 

It  should  be  observed,  however,  that  the  charges  of  the  postoflice  department, 
about  four  millions  and  a  half,  were  a  part  of  this  appropriation,  which  should  be 
deducted  for  a  fair  comparison,  as  the  revenues  and  disbursements  of  that  depart- 
ment have  heretofore  been  kept  by  themselves,  and  not  reckoned  with  those  of  the 
government.  Nor  was  the  debt  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  one  million  and  a 
half  (assumed),  or  the  two  per  cent,  land  fund  and  land  distribution  appropria- 
tions, falling  in  this  account,  i)roperly  chargeable  to  that  administration — all  of 
which  deducted,  would  reduce  the  appropriations  for  1842  to  less  than  sixteen 
millions. 

The  appropriations  for  the  six  months,  between  January  1,  and  June  30,  1843, 
were  $8,166,418  00;  and  for  the  fiscal  year,  ending  June  30,  1844,  they  were 
$16,332,837  00. 

Compare  the  appropriations  of  the  twenty-seventh  Congress  with  the  annual 
expenditures  of  Mr.  Van  Buren's  administration,  as  reported  by  the  treasury  de- 
partment, July  2d,  1841  : — 

Expenditure  of  1837 $37,265,037  15 

"  1838 39,455,438  35 

"  1839 37,614,936    15 

"  1840 27,249,909  51 

Total $140,585,321    16 

The  annual  average  of  the  expenditure  of   Mr.   Van  Buren's  administration 

would  be ". $35,146,330  29 

Compare  this  average  with  the  appropriations  of  the  twenty-seventh  Congress 
for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1844,  viz. :  $16,332,837,  which  is  less,  by  $1,240,- 
328   14,  than  half  the  annual  average  of  the  expenses  of  Mr.  Van  Buren's  aJmir.is- 

VoL.  TL— 26 


402  MR.    CLAY    AND    THE 

were  enormous.  The  abuses  that  had  crept  into  the  army,  aug- 
menting expenditures,  were  flagrant  and  startHng.  They  were 
boldly  taken  in  hand,  and  provided  "against  for  the  future. 

There  was  the  board  of  navy  commissioners  in  their  easy  chairs 
at  Washington,  disappointing  tlie  aim  of  their  functions,  and  wast- 
ing money  in  vast  sums  by  their  decisions.  It  was  aboUshed;  and 
the  whole  navy  department  was  reorganized  by  an  act  of  Con- 
gress, introducing  a  new  system  of  economy  and  efficiency,  as  well 
in  the  machinery  of  the  department  itself,  as  in  the  various  branches 
of  the  naval  service — thereby  retrenching  from  one  to  two  millions 
in  the  general  service. 

An  act  was  passed  amending  the  organization  of  the  civil  de- 
partments, suppressing  the  system  of  contingent  and  general  appro- 
priations ;  cutting  off  the  power  of  pensioning  a  partisan  press,  by 
ordering  the  public  printing  to  be  done  on  contract  with  fair  deal- 
ers, in  open  market;  ordering  purchases  and  other  government 
jobbings,  on  the  same  principle  ;  reducing  and  limiting  allowances 
of  various  kinds. 

The  vast  peculations  and  frauds  in  the  Indian  department,  land 
offices,  and  customhouses,  were  hunted  out  and  reformed — nothing 
more  needed.'  The  contingent  expenses  of  Congress  were  cut 
down  to  an  honest  level,  and  former  abuses  corrected.  All 
branches  of  the  public  service  were  thoroughly  overhauled,  exam- 
ined, retrenched,  and  reformed,  so  far  as  legislation  could  do.     If 

tration  ;  or  less  bj'  $18,813,493  29,  than  the  entire  average;  or  less  by  $23,122,- 
601  35  than  the  highest  annual  expenditure  of  Mr.  Van  Buren. 

Mr.  Van  Buren  came  into  power  with  six  millions  of  dollars  in  the  treasury'; 
he  took  for  the  uses  of  government  the  eight  millions  of  United  States  bank  stock 
that  was  owned  by  the  government;  he  also  took  the  fourth  instalment  due  to  the 
states  by  the  deposite  act  of  1836,  which  was  nine  millions  ;  the  treasurj--notes 
outstanding  on  the  4th  of  March,  1841,  when  he  retired  to  give  place  to  General 
Harrison,  were  somewhat  over  six  millions  and  a  half;  the  whole  amounting  to 
about  tliirty  millions,  whicli  is  the  amount  he  expended,  during  his  four  years,  in 
excess  of  the  revenues  of  the  government. 

In  addition  to  this,  the  outstandins;  appropriations  on  the  4th  of  March,  1841, 
were  about  twenty-nine  millions.  These,  of  course,  were  so  many  liabilities  of 
the  treasury,  and  consequently  so  much  additional  burden  or  debt  on  the  incoming 
administration — swelling  the  whole  account  to  nearly  sixty  millions,  in  excess  of 
the  revenues  of  the  period  of  his  administration.  It  is  fair,  however,  to  credit 
Mr.  Van  Buren  the  nine  millions  of  outstanding  appropriations  that  were  imposed 
upon  him,  when  he  came  into  power,  March  4,  1837.  The  result  is,  that  the  ex- 
penditures of  Mr.  Van  Buren's  administration,  including  his  appropriations 
thrown  upon  the  succeeding  one,  were  about  fifty  millions  in  excess  of  the  rev- 
enues of  his  term  of  office. 

Further  than  this,  the  conditions  of  the  compromise  act  of  1833  were  about  to 
strike  oif  some  five  millions  of  revenue  in  1841,  and  a  like  amount  in  1842. 
Yet  the  government,  in  full  view  of  the  excessive  expenditures  of  the  past,  and 
of  this  diminishing  revenue  for  the  future,  had  made  no  provision  for  this  extra- 
ordinary and  overwhelming  state  of  things,  brought  about  by  its  own  profligacy 
and  improvidence. 


TWENTY-SEVENTH    CONGRESS.  403 

the  executive,  in  consequence  of  his  apostacy,  did  not  fulfil  his  ob- 
ligations, it  was  no  fault  of  the  twenty-seventh  Congress.  They 
were  faithful  to  the  public  vows  of  1840. 

Mr.  Clay  was  accused  of  being  *'  a  dictator"  in  that  Congress. 
That  he  had  some  influence  there  is  quite  probable  ;  it  will  hardly 
be  denied  that  he  was  entitled  to  it ;  and  so  long  as  he  used  it,  in 
conjunction  with  his  fellow-laborers  of  that  body,  in  bringing  down 
the  annual  expenditures  of  government  ten  millions  or  more,  it  will 
not  be  brought  in  charge  against  him  as  a  crime.  His  project  of 
reform,  which  he  submitted  on  the  1st  of  March,  1842,  has  already 
been  considered.  The  average  annual  expenditures  of  the  pre- 
ceding administration  had  been  upward  of  thirty-five  millions  ;  he 
proposed  to  reduce  them  to  twenty-two  millions,  and  showed  hov/ 
it  could  be  done. 

Mr.  Woodbury,  secretary  of  the  treasury,  had  notified  Congress, 
in  his  annual  report  of  1840,  that  the  public  revenue  thereafter, 
from  existing  sources,  "  would  not  probably  exceed  ten  or  eleven 
millions  of  dollars."  Thus  was  the  government  of  the  country, 
already  involved  in  debt,  without  credit,  spending  at  the  rate  of 
thirty-five  millions  a  year,  with  nearly  thirty  millions  of  outstanding 
appropriations,  and  a  prospective  income  not  exceeding  one  third 
of  the  demand  of  its  prodigal  habits,  transferred  to  the  new  admin- 
istration of  1841,  imposing  on  the  twenty-seventh  Congress  the 
task  of  managing,  as  best  they  could,  this  appalling  condition  of  the 
public  finances.  They,  in  the  first  place,  reduced  the  expendi- 
tures ;  next,  they  funded  the  public  debt ;  they  immediately  passed 
the  revenue  bill  of  1841,  imposing  duties  on  free  articles,  which 
was  an  essential  relief;  and  they  enacted  the  tariff  of  1842,  which 
revived  public  credit,  relieved  the  treasury,  has  paid  off  the  public 
debt,  and  placed  both  the  government  and  people  of  the  country 
in  an  easy  condition,  in  regard  to  public  and  private  finances. 


404  MR.  clay's  resignation 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

MR.    clay's    resignation    AND    VALEDICTORY    ADDRESS. 

"Washington,  Senate  Chamber, 
''February  16,  1842. 
"  To  the  honorable,  the  General  Assembly  of  Kentucky : — 

"  When  I  last  had  the  honor  of  an  appointment  as  one  of  the 
United  States  senators  from  Kentucky,  I  intimated,  in  my  letter  of 
acceptance,  the  probability  of  my  not  serving  out  the  whole  term 
of  six  years.  In  consequence  of  there  having  been  two  extra  ses- 
sions of  Congress,  I  have  already  attended,  since  that  appointment, 
as  many  sessions  of  Congress  as  ordinarily  happen  during  a  sena- 
torial term,  without  estimating  my  services  at  tlie  present  session. 

"  I  have  for  several  years  desired  to  retire  to  private  life,  but 
have  been  hitherto  prevented  from  executing  my  wish  from  consid- 
erations of  public  duty.  I  should  have  resigned  my  seat  in  the 
senate  at  the  commencement  of  the  present  session,  but  for  several 
reasons,  one  of  which  was,  that  the  general  assembly  did  not  meet 
until  near  a  month  after  Congress,  during  which  time  the  state 
would  not  have  been  fully  represented,  or  my  successor  would 
have  had  only  the  uncertain  title  of  an  executive  appointment. 

"The  time  has  now  arrived,  when  I  think  that,  without  any  just 
reproach,  I  may  quit  the  public  service,  and  bestow  some  attention 
on  my  private  affairs,  which  have  suffered  much  by  the  occupation 
of  the  largest  portion  of  my  life  in  the  public  councils.  If  the 
Roman  veteran  had  title  to  discharge  after  thirty  years'  service,  I, 
who  have  served  a  much  longer  period,  may  justly  claim  mine. 

"I  beg  leave,  therefore,  to  tender  to  the  general  assembly,  and 
do  now  hereby  tender,  my  resignation  of  the  office  which  I  hold, 
of  senator  in  the  senate  of  the  United  States,  from  the  state  of 
Kentucky,  to  take  effect  on  the  31st  of  March,  3  842;  and  I  re- 
quest that  the  general  assembly  will  appoint  my  successor  to  take 
his  seat  on  that  day.  I  have  fixed  that  day  to  allow  me  an  oppor- 
tunity of  assisting  in  the  completion  of  some  measures,  which  have 
been  oiiginated  by  me. 

"I  embrace  this  opportunity  to  offer  to  the  general  assembly  my 
most  profound  and  grateful  acknowledgments  for  the  numerous  and 


AND    VALEDICTORY    ADDRESS.  405 

distinguished  proofs,  by  which  T  have  been  honored,  of  its  warm 

attachment  and  generous  confidence  during  a  long  series  of  years. 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  &c., 

"H.  Clay." 

Simple  and  unimpassioned  as  is  the  character  of  this  document, 
it  can  not  for  that  reason  easily  repress  the  thoughts  and  emotions 
which  the  occasion  naturally  awakens.  It  was  now  thirty-six  years 
since  Mr.  Clay  first  took  his  seat  in  the  senate  of  the  United  States, 
nor  was  that  the  beginning  of  his  public  life.  From  1806  lo  1842, 
with  only  two  short  intervals — one  to  repair  his  private  fortune  by 
professional  labors,  and  the  other  for  a  little  repose  after  his  four 
years'  labors  as  secretary  of  state — he  had  been  uninterruptedly 
engaged  in  the  service  of  his  country,  in  connexion  with  the  gen- 
eral government,  first  as  United  States  senator  ;  next,  as  speaker 
of  the  house  of  representatives,  in  all  about  thirteen  years  ;  as  one 
of  the  commissioners  at  Ghent  in  1814,  to  negotiate  peace  with 
Great  Britain,  returning  to  reoccupy  the  speaker's  chair  in  Con- 
gress, which  was  resigned  in  1825  to  take  charge  of  the  state  de- 
partment ;  and  last,  as  United  States  senator  again,  from  1831  to 
1842.  His  assiduous,  untiring,  laborious,  and  eminently  influen- 
tial services  in  these  various  positions,  have  been  considered  in 
these  volumes.  The  document  above  recorded  severed  this  long- 
protracted  connexion  with  the  public,  and  opened  the  door  to  his 
retirement.  It  was  his  leave-taking,  as  a  public  officer,  with  his 
adopted  commonwealth  ;  and  it  remains  only  to  notice  his  farewell 
to  the  senate  of  the  nation,  of  which  the  following  are  extracts: — 

"And  now  [said  Mr.  Clay],  allow  me  to  announce,  formally  and 
officially,  my  retirement  from  the  senate  of  the  United  States,  and 
to  present  the  last  motion  I  shall  ever  make  in  this  body.  But, 
before  I  make  that  motion,  I  trust  I  shall  be  pardoned,  if  I  avail 
myself,  with  the  permission  and  indulgence  of  the  senate,  of  this 
last  occasion  of  addressing  to  it  a  few  more  observations. 

"I  entered  the  senate  of  the  United  States  in  December,  1806. 
I  regarded  that  body  then,  and  still  consider  it,  as  one  which  may 
compare,  without  disadvantage,  with  any  legislative  assembly,  either 
in  ancient  or  modern  times,  whedier  I  look  to  its  dignity,  the  extent 
and  importance  of  its  powers,  the  ability  by  whicii  its  individual 
members  have  been  distinguished,  or  its  organic  constitution.  If 
compared  in  any  of  these  respects  with  the  senates  either  of  France 

or  of  England,  that  of  the  United  States  will  sustain  no  derogation. 

******** 

"Full  of  attraction,  however,  as  a  seat  in  the  senate  is,  sufficient 
as  it  is  to  satisfy  the  aspirations  of  the  most  ambitious  heart,  I  have 


406  MB.  clay's  resignation 

long  determined  to  relinquish  it,  and  to  seek  that  repose  which  can 
be  enjoyed  only  in  the  shades  of  private  life,  in  the  circle  of  one's 
own  family,  and  in  the  tranquil  enjoyments  included  in  one  en- 
chanting word HOMK. 

"It  was  my  purpose  to  terminate  iny  connexion  with  this  body 
in  November,  1840,  after  the  memorable  and  glorious  political 
struggle  which  distinguished  that  year;  but  I  learned,  soon  after, 
what  indeed  I  had  for  some  time  anticipated  from  the  result  of  my 
own  reflections,  that  an  extra  session  of  Congress  would  be  called; 
and  I  felt  desirous  to  co-operate  with  my  political  and  personal 
friends  in  restoring,  if  it  could  be  effected,  the  prosperity  of  the 
country,  by  the  best  measures  which  their  united  counsels  might 
be  able  to  devise;  and  I  therefore  attended  the  extra  session.  It 
was  called,  as  all  know,  by  the  lamented  Harrison;  but  his  death, 
and  the  consequent  accession  of  his  successor,  produced  an  en- 
tirely new  aspect  of  public  affairs.  Had  he  lived,  I  have  not  one 
particle  of  doubt  that  every  important  measure  to  which  the  coun- 
try had  looked  with  so  confident  an  expectation  would  have  been 
consummated,  by  the  co-operation  of  the  executive  with  the  legis- 
lative branch  of  the  government.  And  here  allow  me  to  say,  only, 
in  regard  to  that  so-much-reproached  extra  session  of  Congress, 
that  I  believe,  if  any  of  those,  who,  through  the  influence  of  party 
spirit,  or  the  bias  of  political  prejudice,  have  loudly  censured  the 
measures  then  adopted,  would  look  at  them  in  a  spirit  of  candor 
and  of  justice,  their  conclusion,  and  that  of  the  country  generally, 
would  be,  that  if  there  exist  any  just  ground  of  complaint,  it  is  to 
be  found  not  in  what  was  done,  but  in  what  was  not  done,  but  left 
unfinished. 

"  Had  President  Harrison  lived,  and  the  measures  devised  at 
that  session  been  fully  carried  out,  it  was  my  intention  then  to  have 
resigned  my  seat.  But  the  hope  (I  feared  it  might  prove  vain) 
that,  at  the  regular  session,  the  measures  which  we  had  left  undone 
might  even  then  be  perfected,  or  the  same  object  attained  in  an 
equivalent  form,  induced  me  to  postpone  the  determination  ;  and 
events  which  arose  after  the  extra  session,  resulting  from  the  failure 
of  those  measures  which  had  been  proposed  at  that  session,  and 
which  seemed  for  the  moment  to  subject  our  political  friends  to  the 
semblance  of  defeat,  confirmed  me  in  the  resolution  to  attend  the 
present  session  also,  and  whether  in  prosperity  or  adversity,  to 
share  the  fortune  of  my  friends.  But  I  resolved,  at  the  same  time, 
to  retire  as  soon  as  I  could  do  so  with  propriety  and  decency. 

"From  1806,  the  period  of  my  entrance  upon  this  noble  theatre, 
with  short  intervals,  to  the  present  time,  I  have  been  engaged  in 
the  public  councils,  at  home  or  abroad.  Of  the  services  rendered 
during  that  long  and  arduous  period  of  my  life  it  does  not  become 
me  to  speak ;  history,  if  she  deign  to  notice  me,  and  posterity,  if 
the  recollection  of  my  humble  actions  shall  be  transmitted  to  pos- 


AND    VALEDICTORY    ADDRESS.  407 

lerity,  are  the  best,  the  truest,  and  the  most  impartial  judges.  When 
death  shall  have  closed  the  scene,  their  sentence  will  be  jDronounced, 
and  to  that  I  coi%mit  myself.  My  public  conduct  is  a  fair  subject  for 
the  criticism  and  judgment  of  my  fellow-men;  but  the  motives  by 
which  I  have  been  prompted  are  known  only  to  the  great  Searcher 
of  tlie  human  heart  and  to  myself;  and  I  trust  I  may  be  pardoned 
for  repeating  a  declaration  made  some  thirteen  years  ago,  that, 
whatever  errors,  and  doubtless  there  have  been  many,  may  be  dis- 
covered in  a  review  of  my  public  service,  I  can  with  unshaken 
confidence  appeal  to  that  Divine  Arbiter  for  the  truth  of  the  decla- 
ration, that  1  have  been  influenced  by  no  impure  purpose,  no  per- 
sonal motive;  have  sought  no  personal  aggrandizement;  but  that, 
in  all  my  public  acts,  I  have  had  a  single  eye  directed,  and  a  warm 
and  devoted  heart  dedicated,  to  what,  in  my  best  judgment,  I  be- 
lieved the  true  interests,  the  honor,  the  union,  and  the  happiness 
of  my  country  required. 

"During  that  long  period,  however,  I  have  not  escaped  the  fate 
of  other  public  men,  nor  failed  to  incur  censure  and  detraction  of 
the  bitterest,  most  unrelenting,  and  most  malignant  character;  and 
though  not  always  insensible  to  the  pain  it  was  meant  to  inflict,  I 
have  borne  it  in  general  with  composure,  and  without  disturbance 
here  [pointing  to  his  breast],  waiting  as  I  have  done,  in  perfect  and 
undoubting  confidence,  for  the  ultimate  triumph  of  justice  and  of 
truth,  and  in  the  entire  persuasion  that  time  would  settle  all  things 
as  they  should  be,  and  that  whatever  wrong  or  injustice  I  might 
experience  at  the  hands  of  man,  He,  to  whom  all  hearts  are  open 
and  fully  known,  would,  by  the  inscrutable  dispensations  of  his 
providence,  rectify  all  error,  redress  all  wrong,  and  cause  ample 
justice  to  be  done. 

"  But  I  have  not  meanwhile  been  unsustained.  Everywhere 
throughout  the  extent  of  this  great  continent  I  have  had  cordial, 
warm-hearted,  faithful,  and  devoted  friends,  who  have  known  me, 
loved  me,  and  appreciated  my  motives.  To  them,  if  language 
were  capable  of  fully  expressing  my  acknowledgments,  I  would 
now  offer  all  the  return  I  have  the  power  to  make  for  their  genu- 
ine, disinterested,  and  persevering  fidelity  and  devoted  attachment, 
the  feelings  and  sentiments  of  a  heart  overflowing  with  never- 
ceasing  gratitude.  If,  however,  I  fail  in  suitable  language  to 
express  my  gratitude  to  them  for  all  the  kindness  they  have  shown 
me,  what  shall  I  say,  what  can  I  say  at  all  commensurate  with 
those  feelings  of  gratitude  with  which  I  have  been  inspired  by  the 
state  whose  humble  representative  and  servant  I  have  been  in  this 
chamber?  [Here  Mr.  Clay's  feelings  overpowered  him,  and  he 
proceeded  with  deep  sensibility  and  difficult  utterance.] 

"  1  emigrated  from  Virginia  to  the  state  of  Kentucky  now 
nearly  forty-five  years  ago  ;  1  went  as  an  orphan  boy  who  had  not 
yet  attained   the  age  of  majority — who  had  never  recognised  a 


408  MR.  clay's  resignation 

father's  smile,  nor  felt  his  warm  caresses — poor,  pennyless,  with- 
out the  favor  of  the  great — with  an  imperfect  and  neglected  educa- 
tion, hardly  sufficient  for  the  ordinary  businel^  and  common 
pursuits  of  life  ;  but  scarce  had  I  set  my  foot  upon  her  generous 
soil  when  1  was  embraced  with  parental  fondness,  caressed  as 
though  I  had  been  a  favorite  child,  and  patronised  with  liberal  and 
unbounded  munificence.  From  that  period  the  highest  honors  of 
the  state  have  been  freely  bestowed  upon  me  ;  and  when,  in  the 
darkest  hour  of  calumny  and  detraction,  I  seemed  to  be  assailed 
by  all  the  rest  of  the  world,  she  interposed  her  broad  and  impen- 
etrable shield,  repelled  the  poisoned  shafts  that  were  aimed  for  my 
destruction,  and  vindicated  my  good  name  from  every  malignant 
and  unfounded  aspersion.  I  return  with  indescribable  pleasure  to 
linger  a  while  longer,  and  mingle  with  the  warm-hearted  and  whole- 
souled  people  of  that  state  ;  and,  when  the  last  scene  shall  for 
ever  close  upon  me,  I  hope  that  my  earthly  remains  will  be  laid 
under  her  green  sod  with  those  of  her  gallant  and  patriotic  sons. 

"But  the  ingenuity  of  my  assailants  is  never  exhausted.  It 
seems  I  have  subjected  myself  to  a  new  epithet,  which  I  do  not 
know  whether  to  take  in  honor  or  derogation — I  am  held  up  to  the 
country  as  a  'dictator.'  A  dictator!  The  idea  of  a  dictatorship 
is  drawn  from  Roman  institutions ;  and  at  the  time  the  office  was 
created,  the  person  who  wielded  the  tremendous  weight  of  author- 
ity it  conferred,  concentrated  in  his  own  person  an  absolute  power 
over  the  lives  and  property  of  all  his  fellow-citizens  ;  he  could 
levy  armies  ;  he  could  build  and  man  navies  ;  he  could  raise  any 
amount  of  revenue  he  might  choose  to  demand  ;  and  life  and  death 
rested  on  his  fiat.  If!  were  a  dictator,  as  I  am  said  to  be,  where 
is  the  power  with  which  I  am  clothed '?  Have  I  any  army  ?  any 
navy?  any  revenue?  any  patronage?  in  a  word,  any  power  what- 
ever? If  I  had  been  a  dictator,  I  think  that  even  those  who  have 
the  most  freely  applied  to  me  the  appellation  must  be  compelled 
to  make  two  admissions  :  first,  that  my  dictatorship  has  been  dis- 
tinguished by  no  cruel  executions,  stained  by  no  blood,  sullied  by 
no  act  of  dishonor ;  and  I  think  they  must  also  own  (though  I  do 
not  exactly  know  what  date  my  commission  of  dictator  bears — 1 
suppose,  however,  it  must  have  commenced  with  the  extra  session), 
that  if  I  did  usurp  the  power  of  a  dictator,  I  at  least  voluntarily 
surrendered  it  within  a  shorter  period  than  was  allotted  for  the 
duration  of  the  dictatorship  of  the  Roman  commonwealth. 

"  If  to  have  sought  at  the  extra  session  and  at  the  present,  b) 
the  cooperation  of  my  friends,  to  carry  out  the  great  measures  in- 
tended by  the  popular  majority  of  1840,  and  to  have  earnestly 
wished  that  they  should  all  have  been  adopted  and  executed  ;  if  to 
have  ardently  desired  to  see  a  disordered  currency  regulated  and  re- 
stored, and  irregular  exchanges  ecpiallized  and  adjusted  ;  if  to  have 
labored  to  replenish  the  etnpty  coffers  of  the  treasury  by  suitable 


AND    VA.LEDICTORY    ADDRESS.  409 

duties  ;  if  to  have  endeavored  to  extend  relief  to  the  unfortunate 
bankrupts  of  the  country,  who  had  been  ruined  in  a  great  measure 
by  the  erroneous  policy,  as  we  believed,  of  this  government;  to 
limit,  circumscribe,  and  reduce  executive  authority  ;  to  retrench 
unnecessary  expenditure  and  abolish  useless  offices  and  institu- 
tions, and  to  preserve  the  public  honor  untarnished  by  supplying 
a  revenue  adequate  to  meet  the  national  engagements  and  inci- 
dental protection  to  the  national  industry ;  if  to  have  entertained 
an  anxious  solicitude  to  redeem  every  pledge,  and  execute  every 
promise  fairly  made  by  my  political  friends,  with  a  view  to  the 
acquisition  of  power  from  the  hands  of  an  honest  and  confiding 
people  ;  if  these  constitute  a  man  a  dictator,  why,  then,  I  must 
be  content  to  bear,  although  I  still  ought  only  to  share  with  my 
friends,  the  odium  or  the  honor  of  the  epithet,  as  it  may  be  con- 
sidered on  the  one  hand  or  the  other. 

"  That  my  nature  is  warm,  my  temper  ardent,  my  disposition, 
especially  in  relation  to  the  public  service,  enthusiastic,  I  am 
ready  to  own  ;  and  those  who  suppose  that  I  have  been  assuming 
the  dictatorship,  have  only  mistaken  for  arrogance  or  assumption 
that  ardor  and  devotion  which  are  natural  to  my  constitution,  and 
which  I  may  have  displayed  with  too  little  regard  to  cold,  calcu- 
lating, and  cautious  prudence,  in  sustaining  and  zealously  support- 
ing important  national  measures  of  policy  which  I  have  presented 
and  espoused. 

"  In  the  course  of  a  long  and  arduous  public  service,  especially 
during  the  last  eleven  years  in  which  I  have  held  a  seat  in  the 
senate,  from  the  same  ardor  and  enthusiasm  of  character,  I  have 
no  doubt,  in  the  heat  of  debate,  and  in  an  honest  endeavor  to  main- 
tain my  opinions  against  adverse  opinions  alike  honestly  entertained, 
as  to  the  best  course  to  be  adopted  for  the  public  welfare,  I  may 
have  often  inadvertently  and  unintentionally,  in  moments  of  excited 
debate,  made  use  of  language  that  has  been  offensive,  and  suscep- 
tible of  injurious  interpretation  toward  my  brother  senators.  If 
there  be  any  here  who  retain  wounded  feelings  of  injury  or  dissat- 
isfaction produced  on  such  occasions,  I  beg  to  assure  them  that  I 
now  offer  the  most  ample  apology  for  any  departure  on  my  part 
from  the  established  rules  of  parliamentary  decorum  and  courtesy. 
On  the  other  hand,  I  assure  senators,  one  and  all,  without  excep- 
tion and  without  reserve,  that  I  retire  from  this  chamber  without 
carrying  with  me  a  single  feeling  of  resentment  or  dissatisfaction 
to  the  senate  or  any  one  of  its  members. 

"  I  go  from  this  place  under  the  hope  that  we  shall,  mutually, 
consign  to  perpetual  oblivion  whatever  personal  collisions  may  at 
any  time  unfortunately  have  occurred  between  us  ;  and  that  our 
recollections  shall  dwell  in  future  only  on  those  conflicts  of  mind 
with  mind,  those  intellectual  struggles,  those  noble  exhibitions  of 
the  powers  of  logic,  argument,  and  eloquence,  honorable  to  the 


410  MR.  clay's  resignation 

senate  and  to  the  nation,  in  which  each  has  sought  and  contended 
for  wliat  he  deemed  the  best  mode  of  accomphshing  one  common 
object,  the  interest  and  the  most  happiness  of  our  beloved  country. 
To  these  thrilling  and  delightful  scenes  it  will  be  my  pleasure  and 
my  pride  to  look  back  in  my  retirement  with  unmeasured  sat- 
isfaction. 

"  And  now,  Mr.  President,  allow  me  to  make  the  motion  which 
it  was  my  object  to  submit  when  I  rose  to  address  you.  I  present 
the  credentials  of  my  friend  and  successor  [Hon.  J.  J.  Critten- 
den]. If  any  void  has  been  created  by  my  withdrawal  from 
the  senate,  it  will  be  amply  filled  by  him,  w'hose  urbanity,  whose 
gallant  and  gentlemanly  bearing,  whose  steady  adherence  to  prin- 
ciple, and  whose  rare  and  accomplished  powers  in  debate,  are 
known  to  the  senate  and  to  the  country.  1  move  that  his  creden- 
tials be  received,  and  that  the  oath  of  office  be  now  administered 
to  him. 

"  In  retiring,  as  I  am  about  to  do,  for  ever,  from  the  senate, 
suffer  me  to  express  my  heartfelt  wishes  that  all  the  great  and 
patriotic  objects  of  the  vvise  framers  of  our  constitution  may  be  ful- 
filled ;  that  the  high  destiny  designed  for  it  may  be  fully  answered  ; 
and  that  its  deliberations,  now  and  hereafter,  may  eventuate  in 
securing  the  prosperity  of  our  beloved  country,  in  maintaining  its 
rights  and  honor  abroad,  and  upholding  its  interests  at  home.  I 
retire,  I  know,  at  a  period  of  infinite  distress  and  embarrassment. 
I  wish  I  could  take  my  leave  of  you  under  more  favorable  aus- 
pices ;  but,  without  meaning  at  this  time  to  say  whether  on  any  or 
on  whom  reproaches  for  the  sad  condition  of  the  country  should 
fall,  1  appeal  to  the  senate  and  to  the  world  to  bear  testimony  to 
my  earnest  and  continued  exertions  to  avert  it,  and  to  the  truth 
that  no  blame  can  justly  attach  to  me. 

"  May  the  most  precious  blessings  of  Heaven  rest  upon  the 
whole  senate  and  each  member  of  it,  and  may  the  labors  of  every 
one  redound  to  the  benefit  of  the  nation  and  the  advancement  of 
his  own  fame  and  renow'n.  And  when  you  shall  retire  to  the 
bosom  of  your  constituents,  may  you  receive  that  most  cheering 
and  gratifying  of  all  human  rewards — their  cordial  greeting  of 
'  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant.' 

"  And  now,  Mr.  President,  and  senators,  I  bid  you  all  a  long, 
a  lasting,  and  a  friendly  farewell." 

Mr.  Crittenden  was  duly  qualified,  and  took  his  seat.  Mr. 
Preston  then  rose  and  said,  that  "  w'hat  had  just  taken  place  was 
an  epoch  in  their  legislative  history,  and,  from  the  feeling  which 
was  evinced,  he  plainly  saw  that  there  was  little  disposition  to 
attend  to  business  ;  he  would  therefore  move  that  the  senate  ad- 
journ"— which  motion  was  unanimously  agreed  to. 


AND    VALEDICTORY    ADDRESS.  411 

Tlie  feeling  manifested  on  this  occasion,  both  on  the  floor  and 
in  tlie  galleries — all  of  which,  with  every  door  and  avenue,  as 
might  be  expected,  were  crowded — was  such  as  is  rarely  witnessed 
in  a  like  assembly.  The  opponents  of  Mr.  Clay  in  the  senate, 
some  of  whom  had  been  very  bitter  in  their  hostility,  seemed  to  be 
subdued,  and  to  give  themselves  up  to  the  more  generous  feel- 
ings, most  of  whom  were  seen  crossing  the  floor  after  the  senate 
had  adjourned,  and  offering  their  hands  to  Mr.  Clay.  All  were 
interested  in  observing  this  act,  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  and 
touched  in  noticing,  that  both  he  and  Mr.  Clay  were  too  much 
affected  to  make  anv  conversation,  and  forced  to  retire  without  a 
single  word. 

Thus  ended  the  congressional  career  of  an  American  statesman, 
whose  fame  has  filled  the  world,  whose  influence  has  not  only  per- 
vaded the  republic  whose  interests  he  so  long  labored  to  promote, 
and  whose  honor  before  the  world  he  strived  to  maintain ;  but 
other  nations  have  felt  the  power  of  his  name — the  strong  to 
respect  him,  and  the  weak  and  oppressed  to  be  inspired  with  hope 
and  courage  by  his  advocacy  of  freedom  and  the  rights  of  man. 
"  I  have  no  commiseration  for  princes  ;  but  my  sympathies  are 
reserved  for  the  great  mass  of  mankind."  This  appears  to  have 
been  the  maxim  of  his  public  life.  His  own  country,  and  the  peo- 
ple of  that  country,  were  first  in  his  affections  ;  but  a  heart  made 
for  "  the  great  masses  of  mankind,"  could  not  be  limited  to  this 
narrow  sphere.  It  has  been  seen  how  long,  and  with  what  ultimate 
triumph,  he  pleaded  the  cause  of  the  suffering  millions  of  South 
America  ;  how  Greece,  in  her  agony,  held  not  out  her  imploring 
arms  to  the  west,  without  an  advocate  ;  and  how  long  and  faith- 
fully he  has  served  the  toiling  millions  of  his  own  country.  "  The 
masses"  of  the  American  people  will  yet  appreciate  his  labors  in 
their  behalf,  if  happily,  that  system  of  protection  to  American  in- 
dustry— which,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  his  public  career, 
disregarding  his  own  advantage,  he  has,  so  earnestly,  so  unflinch- 
ingly, so  perseveringly,  so  effectively,  advocated,  under  trials  suffi- 
cient to  discourage  any  heart  less  stout  than  his — shall  finally  tri- 
umph. 


412  MR.    CLAY    IN    RETIREMENT. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


MR.    CLAY    IN    RETIREMENT. 


The  Barbecue  at  Lexington  in  Honor  of  Mr.  Clay. — The  Sentiment  addressed  to 
him. — His  Speech  on  the  Occasion. — Personal  Matters. — Public  Affairs. — The 
Hoary  Statesman  in  Private  Lil'e. 

After  Mr.  Clay  had  retired  to  private  life,  in  the  spring  of 
1842,  his  fellow-citizens  of  Kentucky  proposed  to  do  him  the 
honor  of  a  public  entertainment,  and  on  the  9th  of  June  the  great- 
est assemblage  of  ladies  and  gentlemen,  ever  known  in  that  com- 
monwealth, from  all  its  parts,  with  a  sprinkling  from  other  states, 
was  convened  at  Lexington,  at  an  unpretending  festivalj  commonly 
called,  in  that  quarter,  a  barbecue. 

Judge  Robertson,  late  chief-justice  of  the  state,  presided,  and 
opened  the  intcllectnal  treat  with  a  pertinent  and  eloquent  address, 
which  was  concluded  with  the  following  sentiment  in  honor  of 
their  illustrious  neighbor  and  fellow-citizen  : — 

"  Henry  Clay — -farmer  of  Ashland,  patriot  and  philanthro- 
pist — tlte  American  sfafcsman,  and  unrivalled  orator  of  the  age — 
illustrious  abroad,  beloved  at  home  :  in  a  long  career  of  eminent 
public  service,  often,  like  Aristides,  he  breasted  the  raging  storm 
of  passion  and  delusion,  and  by  offering  himself  a  sacrifice,  saved 
the  republic  ;  and  now,  like  Cuwinnutus  and  JFashington,  having 
voluntarily  retired  to  the  tranquil  walks  of  private  life,  the  grate- 
ful hearts  of  his  countrymen  will  do  him  ample  justice  ;  but  come 
what  may,  Kentuchj  will  stand  by  him,  and  still  continue  to  cher- 
ish and  defend,  as  her  own,  the  fame  of  a  son  who  has  embla- 
zoned her  escutcheon  with  immortal  renown." 

It  is  not  surprising,  that  some  feeling  should  have  been  mani- 
fested, as  well  by  the  assembly,  as  by  Mr.  Clay  himself,  after  the 
reading  of  this  paper.  There  was  a  momentary  pause,  and  an 
intense  expectation,  after  which,  Mr.  Clay  rose  and  said  : — 

"  Mr.  President,  ladies,  and  gentlemen:  It  was  given 
to  our  countryman,  Franklin,  to  bring  down  the  lightning  from 
heaven.      To  enable  me  to  be  heard  by  this  immense  multitude, 


MR.    CLAY    IN    RETIREMENT.  413 

I  should  have  to  Invoke  to  my  aid,  and  to  throw  into  my  voice,  its 
loudest  thunders.  As  I  can  not  do  that,  I  hope  I  shall  be  excused 
for  such  a  use  of  my  lungs  as  is  practicable,  and  not  inconsistent 
with  the  preservation  of  my  health.  And  I  feel  that  it  is  our  first 
duty  to  express  our  obligations  to  a  kind  and  bountiful  Providence, 
for  the  copious  and  genial  showers  with  which  he  has  just  blessed 
our  land — a  refreshment  of  which  it  stood  much  in  need.  For 
one,  I  offer  to  him  my  humble  and  dutiful  thanks.  The  incon- 
venience to  us,  on  this  festive  occasion,  is  very  slight,  while  the 
sum  of  good  which  those  timely  rains  will  produce,  is  very  great 
and  encouraging." 

After  indulging  in  some  humor  adapted  to  the  occasion,  and 
modestly  ascribing  the  honor  done  him  to  the  partial  kindness  of 
his  friends  and  fellow-citizens,  Mr.  Clay  proceeds  to  say  : — 

"  I  seize  the  opportunity  to  present  my  heartfelt  thanks  to  the 
whole  people  of  Kentucky,  for  all  the  high  honors  and  distin- 
guished favors  which  I  have  received,  during  a  long  residence  with 
them,  at  their  hands  ;  for  the  liberal  patronage  which  1  received 
from  them  in  my  professional  pursuit ;  for  the  eminent  places  in 
which  they  have  put  me,  or  enabled  me  to  reach  ;  for  the  gener- 
ous and  unbounded  confidence  which  they  have  bestowed  upon 
me,  at  all  times ;  for  the  gallant  and  unswerving  fidelity  and 
attachment  with  wliich  they  stood  by  me,  throughout  all  the  trials 
and  vicissitudes  of  an  eventful  and  arduous  life  ;  and  above  all, 
for  the  scornful  indignation  with  which  they  repelled  an  infamous 
calumny  directed  against  my  name  and  fame,  at  a  momentous  pe- 
riod of  my  public  career.  In  recalling  to  our  memory  but  the  cir- 
cumstances of  that  period,  one  can  not  but  be  filled  with  astonish- 
ment at  the  indefatigability  with  which  the  calumny  was  propa- 
gated, and  the  zealous  partisan  use  to  which  it  was  applied,  not 
only  without  evidence,  but  in  the  face  of  a  full  and  complete  refu- 
tation. Under  whatever  deception,  delusion,  or  ignorance,  it  was 
received  elsewhere,  with  you,  my  friends  and  neighbors,  and  with 
the  good  people  of  Kentucky,  it  received  no  countenance  ;  but  in 
proportion  to  the  venom  and  the  malevolence  of  its  circulation, 
were  the  vigor  and  magnanimity  with  which  I  was  generally  sup- 
ported. Upheld  with  the  consciousness  of  the  injustice  of  the 
charge,  I  should  have  borne  myself  with  becoming  fortitude,  if  I 
had  been  abandoned  by  you  as  I  was  by  so  large  a  portion  of  my 
countrymen.  But  to  have  been  sustained  and  vindicated  as  I  was, 
by  the  people  of  my  own  state,  by  you  who  know  me  best,  and 
whom  I  had  so  many  reasons  to  love  and  esteem,  greatly  cheered 
and  encouraged  me,  in  my  onward  progress.  Eternal  thanks  and 
gratitude  are  due  from  me. 

"  I  thank  you,  friends  and  fellow-citizens,  for  your  distinguished 
and  enthusiastic  reception  of  me  this  day ;  and  for  the  excellence 


414  MR.    GLAY    IN     RETIREMENT. 

and  abundance  of  the  barbecue  that  has  been  provided  for  our  en 
tertainment.  And  I  thank,  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart,  my  fair 
countrywomen,  for  honoring,  and  gracing,  and  adding  brilliancy 
to  this  occasion,  by  their  numerous  attendance.  If  the  delicacy 
and  refinement  of  their  sex  will  not  allow  them  to  mix  in  the 
rougher  scenes  of  human  life,  we  may  be  sure  that  whenever,  by 
their  presence,  their  smiles  and  approbation  are  bestowed,  it  is  no 
ordinary  occurrence.  That  presence  is  always  an  absolute  guaranty 
of  order,  decorum,  and  respect.  I  take  the  greatest  pleasure  in 
bearing  testimony  to  their  value  and  their  virtue.  I  have  ever 
found  in  them  true  and  steadfast  friends,  generously  sympathizing 
in  distress,  and  by  their  courageous  fortitude  in  bearing  it  them- 
selves, encouraging  us  to  imitate  their  example.  And  we  all  know 
and  remember  how,  as  in  1840,  they  can  powerfully  aid  a  great 
and  good  cause,  without  any  departure  from  the  propriety  or  dig- 
nity of  their  sex." 

The  early  history  of  Mr.  Clay,  given  in  another  part  of  this 
work,  was  here  alluded  to  by  himself.     He  then  proceeds : — 

"In  1803  or  '4,  when  I  was  absent  from  the  county  of  Fayette, 
at  the  Olympian  springs,  without  my  knowledge  or  previous  con- 
sent, I  was  brought  forward  as  a  candidate,  and  elected  to  the  gen 
eral  assembly  of  this  state.  I  served  in  that  body  several  years, 
and  was  then  transferred  to  the  senate,  and  afterward  to  the  house 
of  representatives  of  the  United  States.  I  will  not  dwell  on  the 
subsequent  events  of  my  political  life,  or  enumerate  the  offices 
which  1  have  filled.  During  my  public  career,  I  have  had  bitter, 
implacable,  reckless  enemies.  But  if  I  have  been  the  object  of 
misrepresentation  and  unmerited  calumny,  no  man  has  been  beloved 
or  honored  by  more  devoted,  faithful,  and  enthusiastic  friends.  I 
have  no  reproaches,  none,  to  make  toward  my  country,  which  has 
distinguished  and  elevated  me  far  beyond  what  I  had  any  right  to 
expect.  I  forgive  my  enemies,  and  hope  they  may  live  to  obtain 
the  forgiveness  of  their  own  hearts. 

"  It  would  neither  be  fitting,  nor  is  it  my  purpose,  to  pass  judg- 
ment on  all  the  acts  of  my  public  life  ;  but  I  hope  I  shall  be  ex- 
cused for  one  or  two  observations,  which  the  occasion  appears  to 
me  to  authorize. 

"  I  never  but  once  changed  my  opinion  on  any  great  measure 
of  national  policy,  or  on  any  great  principle  of  construction  of  the 
national  constitution.  In  early  life,  on  deliberate  consideration,  I 
adopted  the  principles  of  interpreting  the  federal  constitution,  which 
had  been  so  ably  developed  and  enforced  by  Mr.  Madison,  in  his 
memorable  report  to  the  Virginia  legislature,  and  to  them,  as  I  un- 
derstood them,  I  have  constantly  adhered.  Upon  the  question 
coming  up  in  the  senate  of  the  United  States  to  recharter  the  first 
bank  of  the  United  States,  thirty  years  ago,  1  opposed  the  recharter, 


MR.    CLAY    IN    RETIREMENT.  415 

upon  convictions  which  I  honestly  entertained.  The  experience 
of  the  war,  which  shortly  followed,  the  condition  into  which  the 
currency  of  the  country  was  thrown,  without  a  bank,  and,  I  may 
now  add,  later  and  more  disastrous  experience,  convinced  me  I 
was  wrong.  I  publicly  stated  to  my  constituents,  in  a  speech  in 
Lexington  (that  which  I  made  in  the  house  of  representatives  of 
the  United  States  not  having  been  reported),  ray  reasons  for  that 
change,  and  they  are  preserved  in  the  archives  of  the  country.  I 
appeal  to  that  record,  and  I  am  willing  to  be  judged  now  and  here- 
after by  their  validity." 

Mr.  Clay  is  not  alone  in  the  sentiment  expressed  in  the  follow- 
ing extract.  The  fact  of  his  accepting  the  office  of  secretary  of 
state  under  Mr.  Adams,  was  not  only  pointed  to  by  those  who 
brought  the  charge  of  "  bargain  and  corruption,"  as  proof  of  its 
justice — though  most  unfairly  adduced — but  it  was  so  regarded  by 
large  masses  of  unreflecting  people,  to  whom  it  appeared  in  that 
light.  They  saw  but  two  things — the  charge  and  the  fact,  and 
both  seemed  to  agree.  They  could  not,  or  would  not,  perceive, 
that  Mr.  Clay  was  entided  to  that  place  ;  that  to  him,  it  was  not 
promotion,  nor  covetable  as  conferring  additional  honor;  nor  could 
they  appreciate  the  fact,  that  the  whole  west  expected  and  demanded 
that  Mr.  Clay  should  take  it.  It  was  forced  upon  him — not  de- 
sired. They  who  fabricated  the  charge,  did  it  in  expectation  of  the 
advantage  of  the  fact,  foreseeing  what  would  be  its  influence. 
They  knew  that  all  whom  they  wished  to  say  it,  would  say,  that 
the  fact  p-oves  the  charge;  and  so  it  turned  out.  Mr.  Clay,  in  ac- 
cepting the  office  of  secretary  of  state,  was  probably  actuated  by 
two  sentiments,  alike  honorable  and  characteristic  :  first,  that  he 
would  not  be  driven  from  duty,  for  fear  of  the  effects  of  a  calumny 
so  false  and  foul  ;  and  next,  judging  others  by  himself,  he  did  not 
believe  such  a  fabrication  could  be  extensively  entertained.  It 
seems,  however,  from  what  follows,  that  he  was  forced  to  abate 
somewhat  of  his  confidence  in  the  fairness  and  magnanimity  of 
mankind  : — 

"  I  will  take  this  occasion  now  to  say,  that  I  am,  and  have  been 
long  satisfied,  that  it  would  have  been  wiser  and  more  politic  in 
me,  to  have  declined  accepting  the  office  of  secretary  of  state  in 
1825.  Not  that  my  motives  were  not  as  pure  and  as  patriotic  as 
ever  carried  any  man  into  public  office.  Not  that  the  calumny 
which  was  applied  to  the  fact  was  not  as  gross  and  as  unfounded 
as  any  that  was  ever  propagated.  [Here  somebody  cried  out  that 
Mr.  Carter  Beverley,  who  had  been  made  the  organ  of  announcing 
it,  had  recently  borne  testimony  to  its  being  unfounded.]     Mr.  Clay 


416  MR.    CLAY    IN    RETIREMENT. 

said  it  was  true  that  he  had  voluntarily  borne  such  testimony.  But, 
with  great  earnestness  and  emphasis,  Mr.  Clay  said,  1  want  no 
testimony — here,  here,  here  [repeatedly  touching  his  heart, 
amid  tremendous  cheers],  here  is  the  best  of  all  witnesses  of 
my  innocence.  Not  that  valued  friends  and  highly-esteemed  op- 
ponents did  not  unite  in  urging  my  acceptance  of  the  office.  Not 
that  the  administration  of  Mr.  Adams  will  not,  I  sincerely  believe, 
advantageously  compare  with  any  of  his  predecessors  in  economy, 
purity,  prudence,  and  wisdom.  Not  that  Mr.  Adams  was  himself 
wanting  in  any  of  those  high  qualifications  and  upright  and  patri- 
otic intentions  which  were  suited  to  the  office.  Of  that  extraor- 
dinary man,  of  rare  and  varied  attainments,  whatever  diversity  of 
opinion  may  exist  as  to  his  recent  course  in  the  house  of  represent- 
atives (and  candor  obliges  me  to  say  that  there  are  some  things  in 
it  which  I  deeply  regret),  it  is  with  no  less  truth  than  pleasure,  I 
declare  that,  during  the  whole  period  of  his  administration,  annoyed, 
assailed,  and  assaulted  as  it  was,  no  man  could  have  shown  a  more 
devoted  attachment  to  the  Union,  and  all  its  great  interests,  a  more 
ardent  desire  faithfully  to  discharge  his  whole  duty,  or  brought  to 
his  aid  more  useful  experience  and  knowledge,  than  he  did.  I 
never  transacted  business  with  any  man,  in  my  life,  with  more  ease, 
satisfaction,  and  advantage,  than  I  did  with  that  most  able  and  in- 
defatigable gentleman,  as  president  of  the  United  States.  And  I 
will  add,  that  more  harmony  never  prevailed  in  any  cabinet  than 
in  his. 

"  But  my  error  in  accepting  the  office,  arose  out  of  my  under- 
rating the  power  of  detraction  and  the  force  of  ignorance,  and 
abiding  with  too  sure  a  confidence  in  the  conscious  integrity  and 
uprightness  of  my  own  motives.  Of  that  ignorance,  I  had  a  re- 
markable and  laughable  example  on  an  occasion  which  I  will  re- 
late. I  was  travelling,  in  1828,  through  I  believe  it  was  Spottsyl- 
vania  county,  in  Virginia,  on  my  return  to  Washington,  in  company 
with  some  young  friends.  We  halted  at  night  at  a  tavern,  kept  by 
an  aged  gentleman,  who,  I  quickly  perceived,  from  the  disorder 
and  confusion  which  reigned,  had  not  the  happiness  to  have  a  wife. 
After  a  hurried  and  bad  supper,  the  old  gentleman  sat  down  by 
me,  and  without  hearing  my  name,  but  understanding  that  I  was 
from  Kentucky,  remarked  that  he  had  four  sons  in  that  state,  and 
that  he  was  very  sorry  they  were  divided  in  politics,  two  being  for 
Adams,  and  two  for  Jackson  ;  he  wished  they  were  all  for  -Jack- 
son. '  Why  V  I  asked  him.  '  Because,'  he  said, '  that  fellow  Clay, 
and  Adams,  had  cheated  Jackson  out  of  the  presidency.' — 'Have 
you  ever  seen  any  evidence,  my  old  friend,'  said  I,  'of  that?' — 
'  No,'  he  replied, '  none,  and  I  want  to  see  none.' — '  But,'  I  observ- 
ed, looking  him  direcdy  and  steadily  in  the  face,  '  suppose  Mr.  Clay 
were  to  come  here  and  assure  you,  upon  his  honor,  that  it  was  all 
a  vile  calumny,  and  not  a  word  of  truth  in  it,  would  you  believe 


MR.    CLAY    IN    RETIREMENT.  417 

him  V — '  No,'  replied  the  old  gentleman,  promptly  and  emphatically. 
I  said  to  him,  in  conclusion,  '  Will  you  be  good  enough  to  show 
me  to  bed?'  and  bade  him  good  night.  The  next  morning,  having 
in  the  interval  learned  my  name,  he  came  to  me  full  of  apologies ; 
but  I  at  once  put  him  at  his  ease  by  assuring  him  that  I  did  not 
feel  in  the  slightest  degree  hurt  or  offended  with  him." 

This  anecdote,  certainly,  would  be  very  amusing,  if  it  did  not 
relate  to  so  serious  a  piece  of  history — if  it  did  not  develop  that 
great  and  potent  element  of  human  nature,  which  was  chiefly  re- 
lied upon  in  that  tremendous  conspiracy  ;  and  if  it  did  not  in  this 
way,  compel  to  the  gravest  reflections,  minds  that  would  otherwise 
be  disposed  to  merriment. 

"Mr.  President  [said  Mr.  Clay],  I  have  been  accused  of  ambition, 
often  accused  of  ambition.  If  to  have  served  my  country  during  a 
long  series  of  years  with  fervent  zeal  and  unshaken  fidelity,  in  sea- 
sons of  peace  and  war,  at  home  and  abroad,  in  the  legislative  halls 
and  in  an  executive  department;  if  to  have  labored  most  sedu- 
lously to  avert  the  embarrassment  and  distress  which  now  over- 
spread this  Union,  and  when  they  came,  to  have  exerted  myself 
anxiously,  at  the  extra  session,  and  at  this,  to  devise  healing  reme- 
dies; if  to  have  desired  to  introduce  economy  and  reform  in  the 
general  administration,  curtail  enormous  executive  power,  and 
amply  provide,  at  the  same  time,  for  the  wants  of  the  government 
and  the  wants  of  the  people,  by  a  tariff  which  would  give  it  reve- 
nue and  them  protection;  if  to  have  earnestly  sought  to  establish 
the  bright  but  too  rare  example  of  a  party  in  power  faithful  to  its 
promises  and  pledges  made  when  out  of  power ;  if  these  services, 
exertions,  and  endeavors,  justify  the  accusation  of  ambition,  I  must 
plead  guilty  to  the  charge. 

"I  have  wished  the  good  opinion  of  the  world;  but  I  defy  the 
most  malignant  of  my  enemies  to  show  that  I  have  attempted  to 
gain  it  by  any  low  or  grovelling  arts,  by  any  mean  or  unworthy 
sacrifices,  by  the  violation  of  any  of  the  obligations  of  honor,  or 
by  a  breach  of  any  of  the  duties  which  I  owed  to  my  country. 

"I  turn,  sir,  from  these  personal  allusions  and  reminiscences,  to 
the  vastly  more  important  subject  of  the  present  actual  condition 
of  this  country.  If  they  could  ever  be  justifiable  or  excusable,  it 
would  be  on  such  an  occasion  as  this,  when  I  am  addressing  tho:e 
to  whom  I  am  bound  by  so  many  intimate  and  friendly  ties. 

"In  speaking  of  the  present  state  of  the  country,  it  will  be  ne- 
cessary for  me  to  touch  with  freedom  and  independence  upon  the 
past  as  well  as  the  present,  and  upon  the  conduct,  spirit,  and  prin- 
ciples of  parties. 

"  What  is  our  actual  condition?  It  is  one  of  unexampled  dis- 
tress and  embarrassment,  as  universal  as  it  is  intense,  pervading 

Vol.  XL— 27 


418  MR.    CLAY    IN    RETIREMENT. 

the  whole  community  and  sparing  none  ;  property  of  all  kinds, 
and  everywhere,  fallen  and  falling  in  value;  agricultural  produce 
of  every  description  at  the  most  reduced  prices;  money  unsound 
and  at  the  same  time  scarce,  and  becoming  more  scarce  by  prepara- 
tions of  doubtful  and  uncertain  issue,  to  increase  its  soundness  ;  all 
the  departments  of  business  inactive  and  stagnant ;  exchanges  ex- 
travagantly high,  and  constantly  fluctuating ;  credit,  public  and 
private,  at  the  lowest  ebb,  and  confidence  lost ;  and  a  feeling  of 
general  discouragement  and  depression.  And  what  darkens  the 
gloom  which  hangs  over  the  country,  no  one  can  discern  any  ter- 
mination of  this  sad  state  of  things,  nor  see  in  the  future  any 
glimpses  of  light  or  hope.  Is  not  this  a  faithful,  although  appal- 
ling picture  of  the  United  States  in  1842? 

"  The  contrast  in  the  state  of  the  country  at  the  two  periods  of 
1832  and  1842,  is  most  remarkable  and  startling.  What  has  pre- 
cipitated us  from  that  great  height  of  enviable  prosperity  down  to 
the  lowest  depths  of  pecuniary  embarrassment?  What  has  occa- 
sioned the  wonderful  change?  No  foreign  foe  has  invaded  and 
desolated  the  country.  We  have  had  neither  famine  nor  earth- 
quakes. That  there  exists  a  cause  there  can  be  no  doubt;  and  I 
think  it  equally  clear  that  the  cause,  whatever  it  may  be,  must  be  a 
general  one;  for  nothing  but  a  general  cause  could  have  produced 
such  wide-spread  ruin ;  and  everywhere  we  behold  the  same  or 
similar  effects,  every  interest  affected,  every  section  of  the  Union 
suffering,  all  descriptions  of  produce  and  property  depressed  in 
value.  *##«**» 

"  Three  facts  or  events,  all  happening  about  the  same  time,  if 
their  immediate  effects  are  duly  considered,  will  afford  a  clear  and 
satisfactory  solution  of  all  the  pecuniary  evils  which  now  unhap- 
pily afflict  this  country. 

"  The  first  was  the  veto  of  the  recharter  of  the  bank  of  the 
United  States.  The  second  was  the  removal  of  the  deposites  of 
the  United  States  from  that  bank  to  local  banks.  And  the  third 
was  the  refusal  of  the  president  of  the  United  States,  by  an  arbi- 
trary stretch  of  power,  to  sanction  the  passage  of  the  land  bill." 

Mr.  Clay  goes  on  to  establish  this  position,  but  as  it  has  been 
fully  considered  in  this  work,  it  is  unnecessary  to  repeat  it  here. 

After  noticing  the  shock  to  the  commercial  habits  and  interests 
of  the  country,  occasioned  by  the  removal  of  the  deposites,  and 
the  sudden  and  unnatural  inflation  of  credit,  with  its  consequence 
of  extravagant  speculations,  occasioned  by  loaning  those  deposites, 
while  the  loans  upon  the  same  basis  from  the  bank  of  the  United 
States  were  still  out,  flooding  the  country  with  a  circulating  me- 
dium, more  .or  less  unsound,  and  growing  worse,  Mr.  Clay  asks: — 


MR.    CLAY    IN    RETIREMENT.  419 

"  Who  was  to  blame  for  this  artificial  and  inflated  state  of  things? 
Who  for  the  speculation,  which  was  its  natural  offspring?  The 
policy  of  government,  which  produced  it,  or  the  people?  The 
seducer  or  the  seduced?  The  people,  who  only  used  the  means 
so  abundantly  supplied,  in  virtue  of  the  public  authority,  or  our 
rulers,  whose  unwise  policy  tempted  them  into  the  ruinous  specu- 
lation?" 

In  regard  to  the  third  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  public  misfor- 
tunes, the  smothering  of  the  land  bill  of  1833,  Mr.  Clay  here  ex- 
hibits a  new  practical  view  of  the  subject,  not  before  fully  devel- 
oped, as  follows : — 

"  Let  us  here  pause  and  consider  what  would  have  been  the 
operation  of  that  most  timely  and  salutary  measure,  if  it  had  not 
been  arrested.  The  bill  passed  in  1833,  and  in  a  short  time  after,, 
the  sales  of  the  public  lands  were  made  to  an  unprecedented  ex- 
tent; insomuch,  that  in  one  year  they  amounted  to  about  twenty- 
five  millions  of  dollars,  and  in  a  iew  years,  to  an  aggregate  of  about 
fifty  millions  of  dollars.  It  was  manifest,  that  if  this  fund,  so  rap- 
idly accumulating,  remained  in  the  custody  of  the  local  banks,  in 
conformity  with  the  treasury  circular,  and  with  their  interests,  it 
would  be  made  the  basis  of  new  loans,  new  accommodations, 
fresh  bank  facilities.  It  was  manifest  that  the  same  identical  sum 
of  money  might,  as  it  in  fact  did,  purchase  many  tracts  of  land,  by 
making  the  circuit  from  the  land  offices  to  the  banks,  and  from  the 
banks  to  the  land  offices,  besides  stimulating  speculation  in  other 
forms. 

"Under  the  operation  of  the  measure  of  distribution,  that  great 
fund  would  have  been  semi-annually  returned  to  the  states,  and 
would  have  been  applied,  under  the  direction  of  their  respective 
legislatures,  to  various  domestic  and  useful  purposes.  It  would 
have  fallen  upon  the  land,  like  the  rains  of  heaven,  in  gentle,  ge- 
nial, and  general  showers,  passing  through  a  thousand  rills,  and 
fertilizing  and  beautifying  the  country.  Instead  of  being  em- 
ployed in  purposes  of  speculation,  it  would  have  been  applied  to 
the  common  benefit  of  the  whole  people.  Finally,  when  the  fund 
had  accumulated,  and  was  accumulating  in  an  alarming  degree,  it 
was  distributed  among  the  states  by  the  deposite  act,  but  so  sud- 
denly distributed,  in  such  large  masses,  and  in  a  manner  so  totally 
in  violation  of  all  the  laws  and  rules  of  finance,  that  the  crisis  of 
suspension  in  1837  was  greatly  accelerated.  This  would  have 
been  postponed,  if  not  altogether  avoided,  if  the  land  bill  of  1833 
had  been  approved  and  executed. 

"To  these  three  causes,  fellow-citizens,  the  veto  of  the  bank  of 
the  United  States,  with  the  consequent  creation  of  innumerable 
local  banks,  the  removal  of  the  deposites  of  the  United  States  from 
the  bank  of  the  United  States,  and  their  subsequent  free  use,  and 


420  '  MR.    CLAY    IN    RETIREMENT. 

the  failure  of  the  land  bill  of  1833,  I  verily  believe,  all,  or  nearly 
all,  of  the  pecuniary  embarrassments  of  the  country  are  plainly 
attributable.  If  the  bank  had  been  rechartered,  the  public  depos- 
ites  suffered  to  remain  undisturbed  where  the  law  required  them  to 
be  made,  and  the  land  bill  had  gone  into  operation,  it  is  my  firm 
conviction  that  we  should  have  had  no  more  individual  distress  and 
ruin  than  is  common,  in  ordinary  and  regular  times,  to  a  trading 
and  commercial  community. 

"  They  began  with  the  best  currency,  promised  a  better,  and 
end  with  giving  none !  For  we  might  as  well  resort  to  the  costumes 
of  our  original  parents  in  the  garden  of  Eden,  as,  in  this  enlight- 
ened age,  with  the  example  of  the  commercial  world  before  us,  to 
cramp  this  energetic  and  enterprising  people,  by  a  circulation  ex- 
clusively of  the  precious  metals.  Let  us  see  how  the  matter 
stands  with  us  here  in  Kentucky,  and  I  believe  we  stand  as  well  as 
the  people  do  in  most  of  the  states.  We  have  a  circulation  in 
bank-notes  amounting  to  about  two  millions  and  a  half,  founded 
upon  specie  in  their  vaults  amounting  to  one  million  and  a  quarter, 
half  the  actual  circulation.  Have  we  too  much  money?  [No! 
no !  exclaimed  many  voices.]  If  all  banks  were  put  down,  and 
all  bank  paper  were  annihilated,  we  should  have  just  one  half  the 
money  that  we  now  have.  I  am  quite  sure  that  one  of  the  imme- 
diate causes  of  our  present  difficulties,  is  a  defect  in  quantity  as 
well  as  the  quality  of  the  circulating  medium.  And  it  would  be 
impossible,  if  we  were  reduced  to  such  a  regimen  as  is  proposed 
by  the  hard-money  theorists,  to  avoid  stop  laws,  relief  laws,  repu- 
diation, bankruptcies,  and  perhaps  civil  commotion. 

******** 

"  Unfortunately  [says  Mr.  Clay],  our  chief  magistrate  possesses 
more  powers,  in  some  respects,  than  a  king  or  queen  of  England. 
The  crown  is  never  separated  from  the  nation,  but  is  obliged  to 
conform  to  its  will.  If  the  ministry  holds  opinions  adverse  to  the 
nation,  and  is  thrown  into  the  minority  in  the  house  of  commons, 
the  crown  is  constrained  to  dismiss  the  ministry,  and  appoint  one 
whose  opinions  coincide  with  the  nation.  This  Queen  Victoria 
has  recently  been  obliged  to  do  ;  and  not  merely  to  change  her 
ministry,  but  to  dismiss  the  official  attendants  upon  her  person. 
But  here,  if  the  president  holds  an  opinion  adverse  to  that  of  Con- 
gress and  the  nation  upon  important  public  measures,  there  is  no 
remedy  but  upon  the  periodical  return  of  the  rights  of  the  ballot- 
box." 

After  speaking  of  the  importance  of  a  new  and  suitable  tariff 
law — that  of  1842  was  not  then  enacted — and  some  other  matters, 
of  interest  indeed,  though  perhaps  of  less  importance,  Mr.  Clay 
proceeds  to  notice  some  distinguishing  characteristics  of  the  policy 


MR.    CLAY    IN    RETIREMENT.  421 

of  the  two  great  parties  of  the  country,  comparing  each  with  each, 
in  regard  to  certain  principles  and  features,  as  developed  in  the 
progress  of  events,  which  claim  a  serious  and  profound  attention, 
though  they  can  not  be  offered  here.     He  concludes  as  follows  : — 

*'  Fellow-citizens  of  all  parties  !  The  present  situation  of  our 
country  is  one  of  unexampled  distress  and  difficulty  ;  but  there  is 
no  occasion  for  any  despondency.  A  kind  and  bountiful  Provi- 
dence has  never  deserted  us — punished  us  he  perhaps  has,  for  our 
neglect  of  his  blessings  and  our  misdeeds.  We  have  a  varied  and 
fertile  soil,  a  genial  climate  and  free  institutions.  Our  whole  land 
is  covered,  in  profusion,  with  the  means  of  subsistence  and  the 
comforts  of  life.  Our  gallant  ship,  it  is  unfortunately  true,  lies 
helpless,  tossed  on  a  tempestuous  sea,  amid  the  conflicting  billows 
of  contending  parties,  without  a  rudder  and  without  a  faithful 
pilot.  But  that  ship  is  our  country,  embodying  all  our  past  glory, 
all  our  future  hopes.  Its  crew  is  our  whole  people,  by  whatever, 
political  denomination  they  are  known.  If  she  goes  down,  we  all 
go  down  together.  Let  us  remember  the  dying  words  of  the  gal- 
lant and  lamented  Lawrence  :  '  Don't  give  up  the  ship.'  The 
glorious  banner  of  our  country,  with  its  unstained  stars  and  stripes, 
still  proudly  floats  at  its  mast-head.  With  stout  hearts  and  strong 
arms  we  can  surmount  all  our  difficulties.  Let  us  all,  all,  rally 
round  that  banner,  and  firmly  resolve  to  perpetuate  our  liberties 
and  regain  our  lost  prosperity. 

"  Whigs  !  arouse  from  the  ignoble  supineness  which  encom- 
passes you  !  Awake  from  the  lethargy  in  which  you  lie  bound  ! 
Cast  from  you  that  unworthy  apathy  which  seems  to  make  you  in- 
different to  the  fate  of  your  country  !  Arouse  !  awake  !  shake  off 
the  dew-drops  that  glitter  on  your  garments,  and  once  more  march 
to  battle  and  to  victory  !  You  have  been  disappointed,  deceived, 
betrayed — shamefully  deceived  and  betrayed.  But  will  you,  there- 
fore, also  prove  false  and  faithless  to  your  country,  or  obey  the 
impulses  of  a  just  and  patriotic  indignation?" 

There  stands  the  hoary  statesman  of  forty  years'  public  service, 
after  his  retirement,  in  the  midst  of  many  thousands  of  his  old 
friends  and  neighbors,  of  both  sexes  and  all  ages,  who  are  hanging 
upon  his  lips,  to  hear  him  talk  of  the  past,  of  the  present,  and  the 
future  ;  and  the  great  family  of  his  own  commonwealth,  there  rep- 
resented, are  not  more  interested  in  what  he  says,  than  the  twenty 
or  thirty  times  greater  family  of  the  nation.  With  faculties  unim- 
paired, with  eye  undinimed,  with  a  zeal  for  the  public  welfare 
undiminished,  and  with  a  patriotism  unabated,  he  occupies  a  new 
position — is  a  private  citizen.  But  those  treasures  of  wis- 
dom and   knowledge,  the  fruit  of  a  long  life  of  painful  study  and 


422  MR.    CLAY    IN    RETIREMENT. 

toil,  are  not  less  affluent  than  before.  The  beauty,  the  moral 
sublimity  of  the  spectacle,  is,  that,  though  discussing  these  high 
themes,  old  men  and  children,  male  and  female,  understand  every 
word  he  says.  Such  is  the  capacity,  and  such  the  habit,  of  a  free 
people.  It  is  not  to  be  forgotten,  however,  that  they  were  all 
pupils  of  this  master. 

Every  position  in  which  Mr!  Clay  is  found,  in  public  or  in  pri- 
vate, is  justly  regarded  with  interest.  He  has  done  the  state  some 
service.  He  is  everywhere  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  country, 
and  of  his  times.  His  light  can  not  be  obscured,  till  the  grave 
shall  have  closed  upon  him.  Nay,  even  the  grave  can  not  hide 
him.  While  the  nation  lives  a  free  commonwealth,  to  rejoice  in 
its  privileges  and  growing  prosperity — if  happily  it  may  be  so — 
the  security  of  those  privileges,  and  the  monuments  of  that  pros- 
perity, will  bear  down  to  future  ages  the  name  of  the  man  to  whom 
they  will  owe  so  much  of  their  value  and  importance  ;  and  if,  un- 
fortunately, freedom  here  is  doomed  to  perish,  and  the  possible 
boundless  wealth  and  happiness  of  the  nation  to  be  blasted,  the 
counsels  of  this  patriot,  contemned,  will  render  him  scarcely  less 
illustrious  in  the  ruins  of  the  republic,  than  in  the  other  alterna- 
tive. 


THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CAMPAIGN    OF    1844.  423 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CAMPAIGN    OF    1844. 

Causes  of  the  Early  Movement  of  1844. — Baltimore  Wlii?  Convention. — Its  En- 
thusiasm and  High  Hopes. — Nomination  by  Acclamation. — Mr.  Fielinghuysen. 
— Causes  of  Defeat. — Party  Names. — The  Texas  Question. — Political  Letters 
of  Candidates. — The  Whigs  a  Patriotic  Party,  but  want  Discipline. — Mr.  Van 
Buren  put  off  the  Course  by  the  Whigs. — Executive  Patronage. — Texas  Treaty. 
— Native  Americans. — Abolition. — Action  of  Mr.  Clay's  Namesake. — Defects 
of  Whig  Organizations. — Betting  on  Elections.— Election  Frauds. — 'Mr.  Clay 
elected  by  the  Legal  Vote  of  the  Country. 

The  lamentable  death  of  President  Harrison  within  thirty  days 
after  his  inauguration,  and  the  consequences  of  the  apostacy  of  the 
vice-president,  John  Tyler — of  his  entire  defection  from  the  ranks 
and  principles  of  the  party,  by  whose  favor  and  misplaced  confi- 
dence he  had  gained  the  eminent  post  of  chief  magistrate  of  the 
republic,  had  brought  back  and  concentrated  upon  Mr.  Clay,  with 
great  activity  and  vigor,  the  affections  and  respect  of  the  triumphant 
party  of  1840,  betrayed  and  disappointed  as  they  were,  by  a  faith- 
less recreant.  The  unexampled  magnanimity  of  Mr.  Clay,  in 
falling  in  with  and  sustaining  the  decision  of  the  Harrisburg  con- 
vention of  1839,  had  an  equal  influence  in  elevating  himself,  and 
in  hallowing  the  devotion  of  the  people  to  the  nominee.  With 
such  a  sanction,  no  man  of  the  party  ever  indulged  toward  Wil- 
liam Henry  Harrison  other  than  feelings  of  respect  for  his 
character,  and  of  grief  for  a  national  bereavement.  Mr.  Clay  was 
undoubtedly  the  choice  of  the  party  in  1839  ;  the  nation  was  pre- 
pared to  sustain  him,  and,  but  for  untoward  influences,  which,  in 
their  results,  must  have  given  profound  and  lasting  occasion  of 
remorse  to  the  agents,  he  would  have  been  the  nominee,  and  of 
course  the  successful  candidate.  But  his  noble  bearing  hushed 
complaint,  and  consecrated  the  affections  of  the  party  in  favor  of 
the  lamented  Harrison. 

The  effect  of  this  characteristic  course,  when  the  nation  was 
disappointed  by  the  death  of  General  Harrison,  and  betrayed  by 


424  THE    PRESIDENTIAL.    CAMPAIGN    OF    1844. 

his  lieutenant,  was  such  as  might  have  been  expected,  even  if  there 
had  been  no  other  occasions  in  the  long  and  faithful  public  services 
of  the  man.  No  dissenting  voice  was  ever  heard.  "  Justice  to 
Henry  Clay"  was  the  one  sentiment  of  the  majority  of  a  great 
nation,  and  it  was  impossible  to  defer  the  movement  to  the  cus- 
tomary season  of  such  action.  Early  in  1842  whole  states  began 
to  act,  and  on  the  5th  of  April,  North  Carolina,  which  was  the 
first  to  declare  independence  of  the  British  crown,  took  lead  as  a 
state  in  the  nomination  of  Henry  Clay  for  1844.  State  after  state 
followed,  and  the  movements  of  the  people  in  primary  assemblies, 
for  the  same  object,  throughout  the  Union,  were  innumerable. 
Every  symptom  manifested  by  the  existing  administration  was  only 
from  bad  to  worse,  in  its  violations  of  faith,  and  in  subverting  the 
designs  of  the  movement  of  1S40,  which  raised  it  to  power;  and 
the  party,  despairing  of  the  present,  were  forced  to  hang  all  their 
hopes  on  the  future.  From  a  loathsome  mass  of  corruption,  which 
they  unfortunately,  but  innocently,  had  helped  to  heap  up,  they 
turned  with  confidence  where  they  had  never  trusted  in  vain.  As 
men  must  hope,  and  will  hope  strongly,  in  proportion  as  they  have 
need,  confidence,  not  without  much  reason,  augmented  with  the 
progress  of  time  and  events  ;  and  when  the  national  whig  conven- 
tion of  May,  1844,  met  at  Baltimore,  to  nominate  candidates  for 
president  and  vice-president,  no  assembly  of  the  kind  was  probably 
ever  animated  with  more  enthusiasm,  with  greater  unanimity,  or 
whh  brighter  expectations.  For  the  first  office  no  balloting  was 
required,  for  the  idea  of  a  dissenting  voice  would  have  been  shock- 
ing ;  and  when  the  Hon.  Mr.  Leigh,  of  Richmond,  Virginia,  after 
having  been  announced  for  that  purpose  by  the  Hon.  Ambrose 
vSpencer,  president  of  the  convention,  rose  to  read  the  declaratory 
resolution,  he  could  not  finish  it,  before  the  immense  assemblage 
burst  forth  with  an  acclaim  which  could  as  ill  be  conceived  by  one 
not  present,  as  described  by  one  who  was.  Men  of  snow-white 
heads,  mounted  the  chairs  on  which  they  had  been  seated,  to  aid 
the  chorus,  and  waive  their  hats  and  kerchiefs,  and  then  sat  down 
to  weep,  while  stouter  hearts  sustained  the  long-protracted  shout. 
When  it  had  ceased,  the  president  again  called  upon  Mr.  Leigh 
to  read  the  unfinished  resolution,  which  was  again  interrupted  in 
the  same  manner,  and  with  the  same  result.  As  all  knew  what  it 
was,  it  seemed  impossible  to  get  the  resolution  read.  It  was,  how- 
ever, finally,  though  with  difficulty,  announced.  The  shouting 
that  followed  shook  the  walls  of  the  edifice,  till  it  began  to  settle, 


THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CAMPAIGN    OF    1844.  425 

and  was  supposed  to  be  falling,  occasioning  a  panic  and  rush,  in 
singular  contrast  with  the  exultations  of  the  previous  moment.  No 
harm,  however,  was  done,  and  order  was  soon  restored. 

The  Hon.  Theodore  Frelinghuysen,  of  New  Jersey,  and  chan- 
cellor of  the  University  of  New  York,  who  had  been  senator  of  the 
United  States — a  man  of  the  purest  and  most  elevated  character — 
received  the  nomination  for  the  second  office.  The  day  after  the 
nomination,  a  convention  of  ratification  was  held,  representing  all 
parts  of  the  Union,  at  which  one  hundred  thousand  persons  were 
supposed  to  be  present.  The  convention  dispersed  in  full  confi- 
dence of  final  success. 

The  belief  of  the  Whig  party,  and  the  general  conviction  of  all 
parties,  long  before  the  meeting  of  this  convention,  was,  that  the 
chances  of  the  result  of  the  pending  presidential  campaign,  were 
all  for  the  Whig  candidate  ;  and  when  that  result  finally  transpired, 
the  successful  party  was  generally  as  much  disappointed  as  that 
of  the  defeated.  It  was  extensively  beheved,  and  not  without 
reason,  that,  if  the  result  could  have  been  foreseen,  it  would  have 
been  reversed,  by  a  transfer  of  a  sufficient  number  of  votes  from 
James  K.  Polk  to  Henry  Clay,  to  accomplish  that  object.  Most 
of  those  who  voted  for  Mr.  Polk,  were  not  only  disappointed,  but 
vast  multitudes  of  them  were  sincerely  sorry,  as  they  expected 
and  desired  the  success  of  Mr.  Clay. 

Some  of  the  more  palpable  causes  of  this  disappointment — all 
of  which,  of  course,  are  in  some  degree  conjectural — are  worthy 
of  notice,  not  simply  for  the  gratification  of  curiosity,  but  for  prac- 
tical purposes.  Some  of  them  were  accidental,  and  limited  in 
their  influence  to  the  occasion  ; — others  are  permanent.  The 
most  potential  and  all-pervading  element  of  American  society, 
which  operates  against  the  whig  party  at  all  times,  and  which,  if 
not  removed,  must  for  ever  keep  them  out  of  power,  is  the  name 
assumed  by  their  opponents,  and  so  extensively  awarded  to  them. 
In  1840,  "log  cabin  and  hard  cider"  was  the  natural  and 
expressive  symbol  of  democracy,  and  the  whigs  triumphed,  be- 
cause they  were  taken  for,  as  in  truth  they  are,  democrats.  This 
word  is  the  thing  that  governs  the  American  mind,  and  in  the 
face  of  the  fact,  as  developed  in  this  work,  that  Mr.  Clay  and  the 
whig  party  have  been  battling  for  many  years  against  regal 
power  in  defence  of  democratic  prerogatives,  the  name  prevails 
over  the  thing,  and  is  the  thing,  so  far  as  regards  influence. 
They  who  are  called,  are  supposed  to  be,  democrats  ;  and  it  is 


426  THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CAMPAIGN    OF    1844. 

in  vain  for  any  party  in  the  United  States  to  strive  to  rise,  that 
allows  this  name  to  their  opponents.  Other  and  accidental  causes 
doubtless  operated  against  the  whig  party  in  1844,  but  none  to  be 
compared  with  this  ;  nor  all  together  in  any  amount  to  equal  even 
a  small  fraction  of  this.  This  name  is  the  controlling  power  of 
American  political  society.  But  for  this,  the  whig  party,  with  all 
the  advantage  of  true  democratic  principles,  and  with  the  most 
popular  measures  on  their  side,  could  not  have  fallen  off  from 
their  immense  majority  of  1S40,  to  be  defeated  in  1S44,  by  acci- 
dental and  transient  causes,  although  such  causes,  to  a  consider- 
able amount,  did  undoubtedly  operate.  They  who  say  names  are 
nothing,  err.  In  politics,  it  is  a  fatal  mistake.  The  converse  of 
this  proposition  is  the  truth  :  names  are  everything.  Nor  is 
it  a  libel  on  the  common  mind  to  say  so.  To  expect  that  the 
people  generally  will  understand  the  structure  of  government  so 
nicely,  as  to  see  when  the  democratic  or  regal  power  prevails  in 
the  relative  and  practical  operation  of  its  parts,  or  discern  the 
exact  balances  of  power,  in  its  different  branches,  is  unreasonable. 
Few  but  statesmen  understand  it.  The  people  of  the  United 
States  have  been  contented,  for  many  years,  under  the  sway  of 
regal  power,  because  they  thought  they  were  living  under  a  de- 
mocracy. They  took  the  name  for  the  thing,  and  they  will  always 
believe  in  the  name,  whether  they  have  the  thing  or  not.  It  is  of 
no  use  to  fight  against  a  party  that  is  called  democratic.  Henry 
Clay  is  the  greatest  democrat,  and  one  of  the  oldest,  in  the  United 
States,  and  had  been  fighting  the  battles  of  democracy  against 
regal  power  for  sixteen  years,  and  yet  the  party  which  supported 
this  regal  power,  being  called  democratic,  was  opposed  to  him, 
and  defeated  him  !  If  the  whigs  will  continue,  as  extensively  as 
they  have  done,  to  yield  and  apply  the  name  of  democrats  to 
their  opponents,  they  must  make  up  their  minds  to  the  conse- 
quences. They  have  to  thank  themselves  more  than  all  other 
causes  for  the  stupendous  results  of  this  suicidal  practice.  It  is 
more  than  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  political  capital  of  their  opponents, 
and  there  is  not  a  man  in  the  whig  party  that  does  not  know  it, 
and  who,  in  a  rational  mood,  will  not  confess  it.  But  they  say : 
"  We  will  not  give  up  principle  to  names."  Nobody  has  proposed 
it.  And  they  fight  on  against  the  tide,  never  to  prosper — always 
to  be  beaten.  The  sin)ple  fact  is,  that  the  masses,  being  honest, 
take  for  granted,  that  they  who  are  called  democrats,  are  demo- 
crats.    The  question  is,  how  shall  principle  be  made  to  prevail? 


THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CAMPAIGN    OF    1844.  427 

Only  by  consulting  the  p-inciples  of  human  nature.  What,  to 
deceive?  Certainly  not.  But  to  undeceive — to  give  to  each 
party  a  party  designation — democracy  is  not  such — and  then  show 
where  true  democracy,  in  opposition  to  monarchy,  to  regal  power, 
lies.  The  people  of  the  United  States  are  democrats,  and  it  is  to 
be  hoped  always  will  be.  Did  they  not  declare  and  achieve  inde- 
pendence, to  be  rid  of  regal  power  ?  And  yet,  under  the  name 
of  democracy,  they  have  been  living  sixteen  years  under  a  more 
absolute  regal  sway,  than  that  which  they  rebelled  against  in  1776, 
and  after  a  struggle  of  seven  years,  put  down.  The  sole  cause  is 
a  WORD — ONE  WORD — and  it  is  vain  to  fight  against  it.  The 
remedy  is  suggested:  let  things  have  their  right  names. 
Not  that  the  whigs  should  change  theirs — for  it  is  a  glorious  name, 
though  originally  bestowed  in  reproach — but  that  they  should  not 
help  to  deceive  mankind  and  insure  their  own  perpetual  defeat, 
by  conferring  a  name  on  their  opponents,  to  which  they  are  not 
entitled. 

The  accidental  and  transient  causes,  though  of  much  less  con- 
sequence, are  worthy  of  notice.  The  permanent  one,  above  con- 
sidered, having  nearly  annihilated  the  majority  of  1840,  these 
other  influences,  small  comparatively  as  they  were,  were  magnified 
into  vast  importance,  by  the  position  which  they  occupied  in  con- 
trolling the  result. 

It  can  not  be  denied,  that  the  annexation  of  Texas  had  its  influ- 
ence in  determining  the  presidential  election  of  1S44.  There 
was  more  popular  feeling  for  it,  than  against  it.  Whether  the  act 
of  annexation  will  continue  to  increase  in  favor,  is  a  problem,  on 
the  result  of  which  the  author  of  these  pages  has  no  ambition  to 
set  up  as  a  prophet.  It  is  his  province  to  record  facts,  and  to 
develop  their  agency. 

As  the  practice  of  writing  letters  for  publication,  on  great  pub- 
lic questions,  has  heretofore  prevailed  with  candidates  for  pubhc 
office,  and  been  required  of  them,  it  is  rather  a  subject  of  consid- 
eration, than  of  animadversion.  There  are  some  two  or  three 
principles  which  ought  to  be  respected  in  the  regulation  of  this 
practice  :  the  first  and  most  important  one,  is,  to  suppress  the 
practice  altogether  by  common  consent.  If  a  man  is  worthy  to  be 
a  candidate  for  office,  he  is  worthy  of  some  confidence ;  and 
though  he  may  be  able  to  say  how  he  would  act  on  a  given  ques- 
tion, in  given  circumstances,  no  man  can  tell  how  he  ought  to  act 
on  the  same  question,  in  a  change  of  circumstances,  which  can  not 


428  THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CAMPAIGN    OF    1844. 

be  foreseen.  On  most  public  questions  circumstances  are  con- 
stantly changing,  which  creates  the  necessity  of  what  is  technically 
called  POLICY,  in  government.  It  is  therefore  not  only  likely  to 
be  useless,  but  may  be  injurious,  for  a  statesman,  even  of  the 
most  upright  principles,  to  be  obliged  to  commit  himself  on  public 
questions  to  every  one  that  may  choose  to  interrogate  him.  It  is 
more  frequently  impertinence,  or  vicious  design,  that  seeks,  for 
electioneering  purposes,  to  draw  out  a  candidate  of  known  and 
approved  principles  and  character,  on  some  local  or  entangling 
questions  ;  and  for  that  reason  it  ought  to  be  rebuked.  There  is 
no  just  claim  on  the  candidate  of  a  whole  party,  that  he  should  be 
obliged  to  submit  to  interrogation  for  local  or  private  objects ;  nor 
will  it  probably  be  allowed,  that  a  candidate  has  a  just  right  to 
commit  his  party  unexpectedly,  and  without  their  consent,  so  as 
to  embarrass  their  operations,  and  perhaps  cause  the  loss  of  all 
their  labors.  It  will  probably  be  found,  that  no  candidate  ever 
wrote  a  political  letter  for  publication,  as  a  candidate,  that  was  of 
any  benefit  to  his  party.  Why,  then,  should  the  practice  be  toler- 
ated ?  All  will  agree,  that  the  pr'mciples  of  a  candidate  should 
be  known,  and  that  he  should  always  be  open  to  question  upon 
them,  by  whomsoever,  and  from  whatever  quarter ;  but  the  pre- 
cise mode  of  applying  those  principles  on  any  particular  or  new 
question,  the  circumstances  of  which  may  be  changed  before  he 
will  be  required  thus  to  apply  them,  is  quite  another  matter,  and 
ought  to  be  left  to  his  discretion,  if  he  is  worthy  of  confidence  ; 
and  if  not  worthy,  he  ought  not  to  be  a  candidate.  Letters  of 
this  description  are  always  perverted,  and  rarely,  if  ever,  accom- 
plish the  end  of  the  writer.  They  more  often  do  him  and  his 
friends  great  harm. 

Many  issues,  and  local  issues,  in  a  national  political  cam- 
paign, are  enough  to  defeat  any  party.  The  first  object  should  be, 
to  reduce  the  issues  to  the  smallest  number  possible.  Not  one 
should  be  proposed,  that  will  not  receive  the  unanimous  sanction 
of  the  party,  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  Next 
to  this,  in  importance,  and  not  less  indispensable,  is  the  support  of  a 
discijdine  in  the  press  and  leaders  of  the  party,  not  to  meddle  with 
other  issues  than  those  unanimously  agreed  upon  throughout  the 
Union.  Local  and  state  issues  are  for  local  and  state  elections ;  but 
if  insisted  on  in  a  national  campaign,  may  ruin  a  good  cause.  I( 
may  be  added,  that  a  new  issue  is  extremely  hazardous. 

Mr.  Van  Buren  was  the  destined  candidate  of  his  party  in  1844; 


THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CAMPAIGN    OF    1844.  429 

and  it  was  as  easy  to  calculate  his  strength  in  opposition  to  Mr. 
Clay,  as  for  a  schoolboy  to  do  the  simplest  task  in  vulgar  arith- 
metic. But  the  whig  press,  instead  of  reserving  its  fire,  to  show 
its  valor,  shot  him  down,  before  he  came  into  the  field  ;  and  the 
opposite  party,  seeing  he  was  killed,  brought  another  man  upon 
the  course,  and  thus  took  the  whigs  by  surprise,  and  beat  them. 
The  nomination  of  Mr.  Polk  presented  a  new  problem,  the  ele- 
ments of  which  were  all  in  his  favor  :  he  was  a  7iovus  homo — a 
new  man — to  be  carried  on  the  shoulders  of  the  party,  without 
any  time  to  discuss  his  merits.  It  is  said,  that  Mr.  Van  Buren's 
Texas  letter  killed  him.  Doubtless  it  helped  to  finish  the  busi- 
ness, and  was  a  good  apology  for  throwing  him  aside,  as  the  whigs 
had  proved  he  could  not  be  elected.  It  was  the  true  policy  of 
the  whigs  to  let  Mr.  Van  Buren  alone,  and  allow  their  opponents 
to  have  their  own  way,  till  he  was  nominated,  rather  than  to  destroy 
their  hopes. 

It  will  not  be  doubted,  that  the  executive  power  and  patronage 
had  considerable  influence  in  the  result  of  the  presidential  cam- 
paign of  1844.  The  jealousy,  the  malice,  the  revenge  of  the 
acting  president,  after  having  provoked  a  just  resentment  toward 
himself  for  his  perfidy  to  the  party  that  raised  him  to  power,  were 
sufficient  to  induce  him  to  employ  all  his  official  influence,  and  all 
his  immense  patronage,  to  disappoint  those  whom  he  had  injured; 
and  he  made  no  concealment,  that  such  were  his  aims  and  efforts. 
This  prostitution  of  the  highest  and  most  influential  station  in  the 
republic,  was  accompanied  with  the  singular  openness,  that  it  was 
AVOWED !  For  nearly  the  whole  of  Mr.  Tyler's  term  of  office, 
he  directed  his  efforts  to  secure  his  own  nomination  and  election  ; 
he  was  nominated  by  a  convention  of  office-holders ;  and  when  he 
found  out,  that  he  had  not  the  slightest  chance  of  getting  a  single 
electoral  vote  in  the  whole  Union,  and  that  all  the  world  were 
laughing  at  the  farce  of  his  official  drama,  itself  a  farce,  he  sold 
himself  for  the  last  time  to  Mr.  Polk  and  his  party,  and  threw 
all  his  influence — official,  of  course,  for  he  had  no  other — into  that 
scale.  His  great  card  was  the  Texas  treaty,  which,  though  re- 
jected and  trampled  under  foot  in  all  quarters,  was  nevertheless 
good  capital  for  the  party  into  whose  hands  he  resigned  the  benefit 
and  availed  them  essentially — was  perhaps  the  means,  without 
which,  they  could  not  have  come  to  power ;  and  if  so,  it  was  the 
means  of  defeating  the  opposite  party.  Despised  as  Mr.  Tyler 
was,  his  station  gave  him  power  and  influence,  all  of  which,  from 


430  THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CAMPAIGN    OF    1844. 

beginning  to  end,  was  used  to  defeat  the  election  of  Mr.  Clay.    It 
was  at  least  something  in  the  scale. 

The  Native  American  movement,  organized  in  1843,  operated, 
in  all  its  bearings,  and  with  no  small  effect,  to  the  prejudice  of  the 
whig  cause.  The  riots  of  Philadelphia  were  ascribed  to  the  "  na- 
tives ;"  the  "  natives"  were  alleged  to  be  allied  to  the  whigs  ;  and  in 
that  way,  all  the  odium  that  fell  upon  the  former  among  persons  of 
foreign  birth,  attached  to  the  latter,  and  drove  from  the  whig  ranks 
tens  or  scores  of  thousands  of  adopted  citizens.  Advantage  was 
taken  of  the  prejudices  existing  between  the  protestant  and  Ro- 
man catholic  religions,  which,  in  the  passions  of  the  moment, 
also  operated  against  the  whigs,  in  consequence  of  their  alleged 
sympathy  with  the  "natives,"  and  was  brought  to  bear  on  the  whig 
candidate  for  the  vice-presidency,  on  account  of  his  intimate  con- 
nexion and  high  standing  with  the  protestants. 

The  abolition  or  third-party  vote  amounted,  in  1844,  to  between 
sixty  and  seventy  thousand,  most  of  whom,  it  is  generally  supposed, 
originally  belonged  to  the  whig  ranks,  and  but  for  the  existence  of 
this  party,  would  have  voted  with  the  whigs.  Another,  not  unim- 
portant, and  new  element  of  political  abolition,  started  up  in  the 
person  of  a  Kentucky  whig,  of  the  same  family  name,  and  a  re- 
mote connexion  of  the  whig  candidate  for  the  presidency,  who  un- 
dertook a  self-appointed  mission  into  the  free  states,  with  the  pro- 
fessed object  of  bringing  over  the  abolitionists  to  the  support  of 
Mr.  Clay,  and  was  taken  into  fellowship  by  some  portions  of  the 
whig  press,  and  by  some  whig  leaders.  It  did  not  appear,  that  he 
made  many,  if  any,  converts,  while  his  mission  was  very  notori- 
ous, attracted  attention  in  all  parts  of  the  Union,  and  was  every- 
where used,  apparently  with  no  small  effect  at  the  south,  to  prove 
that  Mr.  Clay  was  an  abolitionist,  and  that  this  gentleman  was  out 
on  a  mission  authorized  and  sanctioned  by  him  ;  and  Mr.  Clay 
was  obliged  to  publish  a  card  disclaiming  all  such  connexion  and 
responsibility.  It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  injury  of  this  mis- 
sion to  the  whig  cause  ;  but  it  was  doubtless  very  considerable. 

The  defects  of  organization,  and  some  modes  of  action,  in  car- 
rying on  the  business  of  the  canvass,  were  doubtless  a  serious 
drawback  on  its  effectiveness,  and  in  many  cases  a  positive  det- 
riment. All  depended  on  the  city  and  state  of  New  York,  and 
yet  it  is  thought  by  many,  that  the  organizations  in  this  quarter 
were  defective  :  First,  in  that  they  did  not  make  a  thorough  per- 
sonal canvass ;  next,  that  many  of  the  leading  agents,  confident 


THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CAMPAIGN    OF    1844-  431 

of  victory,  were  too  much  occupied  in  disposing  of  places  in  pros- 
pect ;  thirdly,  the  dissensions  of  cliques  ;  and  fourthly,  more  show 
than  hard  work. 

In  regard  to  the  first,  the  way  they  did  it  in  New  Jersey  is  an 
instructive  example.  It  was  known  there,  by  personal  canvass,  as 
well  before  the  election  as  afterward,  what  would  be  the  result ; 
and  personal  address  is  that  which,  in  a  great  measure,  determines 
the  result.  It  is  alleged,  that  no  such  canvass  was  jnade,  by  the 
whig  organizations,  either  in  the  city  or  state  of  New  York. 
Hence  the  great  mistakes  in  the  calculations. 

In  regard  to  the  second  of  these  allegations,  if  well  founded,  it 
is  a  scandal,  that  any  of  the  leading  agents  of  a  patriotic  party, 
such  as  the  whigs  generally  are,  should  ever  be  heard,  in  a  great 
political  contest,  talking  about  who  shall  have  this,  that,  and  the 
other  place,  in  an  expected  victory ;  and  the  first  syllable  of  such 
gossip  ought  be  denounced. 

In  regard  to  the  third  alleged  fault,  there  is  perhaps  too  much 
reason  to  believe,  that  some  were  in  the  habit  of  saying  to  others, 
engaged  in  the  same  great  cause,  "  We  can  do  without  you,"  and 
that  they  received  for  answer,  "  Very  well."  This,  certainly,  is 
not  united  strength  against  a  common  foe.  Family  feuds  are  the 
worst  of  all  dissensions. 

And  in  regard  to  the  fourth  allegation,  there  was  certainly  a  pre- 
vailing impression,  not,  perhaps,  without  reason,  that  too  much  re- 
liance was  placed  on  the  public  display  of  mass  meetings,  as  if  the 
nation  were  to  be  carried  by  this  means,  to  the  neglect  of  diffusing 
solid  information,  and  of  personal  addresses. 

It  might,  perhaps,  at  first  sight,  be  supposed,  that  the  practice  of 
betting  on  elections  would  operate  equally  on  both  parties.  But 
that  depends  entirely  upon  the  fact,  whether  both  are  equally  scru- 
pulous as  to  the  means  employed  for  victory.  If  one  is  character- 
istically unscrupulous  in  buying  votes,  and  the  other  unpractised, 
the  former  must  have  the  advantage ;  and  where  immense  sums  of 
money  are  at  stake,  and  the  contest  otherwise  nearly  equal,  the 
latter  is  sure  to  be  beaten.  A  notorious  club  in  the  city  of  New 
York  had  an  offer  of  ten  thousand  dollars  from  these  gamblers,  to 
go  over  to  the  other  side  ;  but  they  struck  a  bargain  with  their  old 
friends,  for  the  same  amount,  to  stay  where  they  were.  This  bar- 
gaining was  not  a  party  business,  but  a  business  of  the  gamblers. 
It  proves,  however,  that  some  clubs,  and  many  voters,  were  in  the 
market ;  and  if  ten  thousand  dollars  was  disbursed  to  a  club  of 


432  THE    PRESIDENTIAL,    CAMPAIGN    OF    1844. 

two  thousand  men  in  the  city  of  New  York,  to  secure  their  votes 
and  influence  on  one  side,  how  much  was  probably  disbursed  in 
this  way  for  the  whole  state  ?  And  how  much  for  the  entire 
Union  ?  They  who  have  money  at  stake  on  an  election,  and  have 
no  scruples  about  buying  votes,  can  w^ell  afford  to  sacrifice  a  part 
of  their  expected  gains,  to  secure  the  rest,  and  save  their  own 
stake.  It  will  be  seen,  that  this  is  a  prodigious — a  stupendous 
power — to  say  nothing  of  the  depravity  of  morals,  which  it  evin- 
ces. Which  of  the  two  great  parties  suffered  most  iii  the  loss  of 
votes  in  1844,  in  consequence  of  the  stakes,  amounting,  as  sup- 
posed, to  millions  in  the  whole  Union,  depends,  as  before  sug- 
gested, on  their  relative  purity — a  question  which  it  is  unnecessary 
here  to  decide,  and  which  may  be  left  with  all  who  are  disposed 
to  consider  it. 

Election  frauds,  fraudulent  issues,  and  the  fraudulent  use  of  nat- 
urahzation  papers,  are  another  item  in  the  list  of  causes,  which 
operated  on  the  result  of  the  presidential  election  of  1844.  That 
such  frauds  were  practised,  not  in  isolated  cases,  but  on  a  large 
scale,  has  been  proved  ;  and  there  is  reason  to  suppose,  that  it 
was  planned,  and  reduced  to  a  system,  where  such  aids  were  most 
required  to  control  results. 

The  Maryland  state  election  of  1844,  was  vigorously  contested, 
and  the  majority  against  the  whigs  in  Baltimore  was  surprising  to 
all  parties.  The  frauds  were  so  numerous,  and  many  of  them  so 
exposed,  that  instant  measures  were  adopted  to  bring  the  offenders 
to  justice.  Numbers  were  convicted  and  punished  before  the  mu- 
nicipal election,  which  followed  three  weeks  after,  and  was  also 
contested  with  equal  spirit.  Though  frauds  were  doubtless  prac- 
tised at  this  election  also,  yet  the  result  showed,  that  the  action  of 
the  courts,  in  the  meantime,  had  imposed  a  salutary  restraint. 
The  aggregate  whig  vote  of  the  city  of  Baltimore  was  nearly  the 
same  as  at  the  gubernatorial  election  three  weeks  previous,  being 
increased  by  only  three  ;  whereas  the  vote  of  the  opposite  party 
was  reduced  722  !  The  convictions  for  fraud  were  all  on  one 
side,  and  a  poor  widow,  who  unexpectedly  paid  her  back  rent,  for 
a  few  weeks  due,  with  great  simplicity,  gave  as  a  reason  for  her 
ability,  that  she  had  received  seventeen  dollars  for  the  use  of  her 
deceased  husband's  naturalization  papers,  one  dollar  for  each  man, 
which  accounted  for  seventeen  fraudulent  votes. 

It  was  only  where  frauds  were  too  obvious  to  escape  notice,  and 
where  the  authorities  could  not  prudently  refuse  to  act,  when  in- 


THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CAMPAIGN    OF    1844.  433 

voked,  that  attempts  were  made  to  punish  frauds  of  this  kind.  At 
one  session  of  the  district  court  of  the  United  States,  at  Pittsburg, 
Pennsylvania,  after  the  presidential  election,  twenty-four  bills  of 
indictment  were  found  for  perjury  and  subornation  of  perjury  in 
taking  out  naturalization  papers — all  for  the  benefit  of  one  party. 
There  were  twenty-five  prosecutions,  and  only  one  of  them  failed 
for  want  of  evidence. 

The  notorious  Plaquemine  frauds  of  Louisiana  had  not  even 
the  decency  of  disguise,  but  were  open  and  violent,  the  judges  and 
public  officers  taking  lead  in  them.  Law  was  trampled  under  foot 
and  anarchy  ruled  for  the  occasion.  Several  hundreds  of  non- 
residents of  the  parish,  were  freighted  in  steamboats  from  New 
Orleans,  carried  down  to  the  precincts  of  Plaquemine,  and  induced 
to  walk  the  rounds  of  voting  two  and  three  times  each,  some  un- 
der a  different  name  for  each  time,  some  under  the  same  name, 
being  furnished  with  tickets  of  the  right  kind,  which  were  opened 
by  the  inspectors,  in  violation  of  law,  before  being  deposited,  to  be 
sure  they  were  right !  Nearly  all  the  whig  votes  offered,  were 
refused  ;  challengers  were  silenced  ;  all  attempts  to  invoke  the  au- 
thority of  law  treated  with  contempt  and  menace ;  and  whig 
tickets,  after  being  delivered,  were  changed  for  others  !  It  was 
proved,  that  the  parish  was  entitled  to  less  than  five  hundred  votes. 
The  number  deposited  was  1,044  !  and  only  thirty-seven  for  the 
whig  electors  ! 

Louisiana  was  regarded  as  a  whig  state,  and  there  was  little  or 
no  doubt,  that  it  would  prove  so  in  the  presidential  election.  The 
result  was  a  majority  of  699  for  Mr.  Polk,  in  a  vote  of  26,865. 
It  was  one  of  those  states  that  was  considered  necessary  to  be 
gained,  to  secure  the  election  of  Mr.  Polk  ;  and  it  was  gained.  If 
the  fraudulent  voters  of  Plaquen)ine  parish,  imported  for  the  oc- 
casion, also  voted  as  many  times  in  New  Orleans,  or  elsewhere,  as 
may  be  presumed — for  they  could  make  double  or  treble  more 
money  at  that  business,  than  at  anything  else,  be  fed,  and  get  drunk 
— that  was  enough  to  answer  all  the  purpose  to  gain  the  state.  But 
it  is  not  to  be  supposed,  that  such  a  system,  actually  adopted  on 
such  a  scale,  and  so  openly  and  unscrupulously  practised,  would 
stop  within  these  ascertained  limits.  The  same  calculations,  ap- 
parently, were  made  for  the  states  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  York, 
and  the  same  system  carried  out — not,  however,  so  openly  as  in 
Louisiana. 

The  evidences  of  fraud  in  the  state  of  Pennsylvania,  are  fur- 

Vol.  II.— 28 


434  THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CAMPAIGN    OF    1844. 

nished  by  finding  the  increase  of  its  population  for  a  given  number 
of  years  ;  by  determining  the  ratio  of  the  increase  of  its  legitimate 
vote  on  the  basis  of  the  increase  of  population  ;  by  comparing  the 
vote  of  1S40  with  that  of  1844 ;  and  by  ascertaining  in  what  parts 
of  the  state,  and  in  which  party,  the  increase  of  the  vote  at  the 
presidential  election  of  1844  exceeded  the  legitimate  ratio. 

It  is  admitted,  or  will  not  be  denied,  that  the  full  strength  of 
both  parties  was  brought  out  in  the  presidential  election  of  1 840, 
when  General  Harrison  was  run  against  Mr.  Van  Buren ;  and  it  is 
assumed,  that  the  increase  of  the  legitimate  popular  vote  can  never 
exceed  the  ratio  of  the  increase  of  population.  It  is  more  likely 
to  be  less,  than  greater,  as  multitudes  of  immigrants  arrive,  who 
are  not  naturalized.  It  is  also  admitted,  or  will  not  be  denied, 
that  the  full  strength  of  both  parties  was  arrayed  in  the  presidential 
contest  of  1844.  Consequently,  when  the  ratio  of  the  increase  of 
population  is  determined,  it  fixes  the  ratio  of  the  increase  of  the 
legitimate  popular  vote,  which,  from  1840  to  1844,  would  be  11*27 
per  cent.  The  average  increase  of  the  vote  of  the  state,  therefore, 
for  the  same  time,  could  not  lawfully  be  more  than  this.  But  it 
was  made  more,  in  the  returns,  by  a  large  fraction.  It  only  re- 
mains to  determine,  in  which  party  this  unlawful  increase  was  ac- 
quired ;  which  is  a  simple  operation  of  vulgar  arithmetic,  in  the 
use  of  elements  furnished  by  official  documents  and  tables. 

It  is  found  on  examination,  that  the  increase  of  the  vote  in  the 
whig  portions  of  the  state,  where  the  authorities  superintending  the 
polls  were  whig,  corresponds  almost  precisely  with  the  ratio  of 
11-27  per  cent.,  and  where  there  were  any  variations  by  accidental 
causes,  as  in  the  city  and  county  of  Philadelphia,  by  the  sudden 
rise  of  native  Americanism,  the  causes  are  apparent.  But  the  in- 
crease of  the  vote  in  other  portions  of  the  state,  where  the  super- 
intendence of  the  polls  was  under  the  direction  of  the  opposite 
party,  was  not  only  much  beyond  the  rule  so  fairly  established, 
but  is  startling — astounding;  and  the  increase  was  not  in  the  whig 
vote,  but  in  that  of  their  opponents. 

The  vote  of  whig  portions  of  the  state  in  1840,  was  1400  less 
than  the  vote  of  the  remaining  portions — the  entire  vote  of  the 
state  having  been  287,695.  The  two  great  sections,  therefore, 
were  nearly  equal  in  this  particular.  But  the  increase  of  the  whig 
vote,  from  1840  to  1844,  was  only  13,679  ;  while  the  increase  of 
the  vote  of  the  opposite  party,  for  the  same  period,  was  24,076. 
It  is  admitted,  that  this  might  have  been  a  lawful  difference,  by  a 


THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CAMPAIGN    OF    1844.  435 

change  of  votes  from  one  party  to  the  other,  if  the  legitimate  ratio 
of  the  ae:a:ree:ate  increase  of  votes  in  the  whole  state,  could  be 
maintained  on  the  basis  of  population.  But  the  application  of  this 
test  decides,  that  there  was  no  aggregate  change  of  this  kind.  On 
the  contrary,  it  is  known,  from  other  sources,  that  the  change  was 
rather  the  other  way. 

The  excess  of  this  unnatural  increase  of  one  party,  in  the  whole 
state,  above  the  ratio  of  11-27  per  cent.,  was  9,810;  and  the  ex- 
cess in  the  counties  where  the  polls  were  under  their  own  super- 
vision, was  6,459. 

There  is  another  remarkable  fact  in  the  difference  between  the 
gubernatorial  and  presidential  votes,  which  happened  about  two 
weeks  asunder.  Before  the  election  for  governor,  &c.,  it  was 
allowed  by  the  knowing  ones  of  the  party  opposed  to  the  whigs, 
that  Mr.  Clay  was  at  least  ten  thousand  votes  stronger  in  the  state 
of  Pennsylvania,  than  General  Markle,  the  whig  candidate  for  gov- 
ernor, and  that  it  would  be  necessary  for  them  to  elect  Mr.  Shunk, 
their  candidate  for  governor,  by  ten  thousand  majority,  in  order  to 
secure  the  state  for  Mr.  Polk.  But  Mr.  Shunk's  majority  over 
General  Markle,  was  only  4,282,  lacking  full  six  thousand,  accor- 
ding to  their  own  calculations,  of  a  safe  majority  for  the  coming 
presidential  election.  With  the  estimated  difference  of  ten  thou- 
sand between  the  popularity  of  Mr.  Clay  and  General  Markle,  the 
full  strength  of  parties  was  brought  into  the  field  in  the  election  of 
state  officers.  How  was  the  remaining  six  thousand,  or  more,  to 
be  made  up,  to  defeat  Mr.  Clay  ?  The  answer  is  found  in  the  re- 
turns of  the  presidential  vote.  The  whig  vote  did  not  fall  off,  but, 
as  was  expected,  increased  5,200  on  the  vote  for  General  Markle, 
mounting  up  to  800  over  that  for  Mr.  Shunk — all  this  gain  for 
Mr.  Clay  coming  from  those  who  voted  for  Mr.  Shunk — and  yet 
the  popular  majority  of  Mr.  Polk  over  Mr.  Clay,  was  6,332  !  It 
was  known,  within  a  very  small  fraction,  by  the  result  of  the  elec- 
tion for  state  officers,  how  large  the  vote  must  be  to  gain  the  state 
for  Mr.  Polk,  by  a  secure  majority,  and  that  amount  was  obtained. 
Admitting  that  fraud  was  practised  as  a  system,  it  was  only  neces- 
sary for  those  who  had  charge  of  this  business,  to  apportion  the 
necessary  aggregate  increase  among  all  the  polls  under  the  control 
of  the  party,  and  require  each  to  return  its  assigned  quota  of  votes. 

A  secret  circular,  dated  Harrisburg,  January,  1844,  signed  by 
Edward  A.  Penniman,  and  seventeen  other  members  of  the  legis- 
lature, as  an  executive  committee,  was  prepared  and  sent  through 


436  THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CAMPAIGN    OF    1844. 

the  State,  with  injunctions,  that  "  the  contents  of  this  letter  should 
be  made  known  only  to  such  of  am- friends  as  ivill  keep  their  ovm 
counsel,  and  assist  in  organizing  the  party  ;  and  it  is  very  desirable 
that  it  should  not  appear  iri  any  7iewspaper,  or  be  communicated  to 
our  piolitical  oppo?ients.^^  After  presenting  the  motives  to  action, 
for  the  pending  presidential  contest,  it  was  particularly  enjoined, 
"  to  secure  a  large  tur?i  out  at  the  election  of  judges  and  inspect- 
ors [of  the  polls].      This  dojie,  we  shall  have  the  vantage  ground, 

AND  AN  EASY  VICTORY  WILL  BE  OURS." 

A  copy  of  this  circular,  together  with  all  the  elements  and  de- 
tails from  which  the  above  statements  and  results  are  obtained,  will 
be  found  in  a  document  addressed  to  the  whigs  of  Pennsylvania, 
by  the  Hon.  Charles  Gibbons  and  others,  dated  at  Philadel- 
phia, December  9,  1844,  amounting,  as  will  probably  be  generally 
conceded,  to  demonstration. 

The  frauds  in  the  city  and  state  of  New  York  were  probably 
more  systematized,  consequently  more  productive,  and  practised 
on  a  larger  scale,  than  anywhere  else.  It  was  admitted  on  all 
hands,  that  the  party  which  should  gain  that  state,  would,  in  all 
probability,  secure  the  general  government.  It  was,  therefore,  an 
object  of  supreme  importance.  The  spectacle  exhibited  in  the 
courts  of  the  city  of  New  York,  a  (ew  weeks,  more  especially  the 
last  few  days,  before  the  election,  manufacturing  American  citizens 
by  thousands,  out  of  the  raw  material  freshly  imported,  and  thrown 
into  their  hands  by  committees  appointed  for  the  purpose,  who  had 
raked  them  up  from  the  gutters  and  dark  dens  of  the  city,  unable 
to  speak  the  English  language,  or  to  understand  anything  what 
they  were  about,  being  as  perfectly  passive  in  the  operation,  as  any 
other  raw  material,  passed  through  any  other  factory  in  the  land, 
is  itself  proof  incontestable  of  the  fraudulent  character  of  these 
transactions  as  to  their  great  bulk.  If  some  of  them  were  entitled 
to  naturalization  by  the  letter  of  the  law,  few  of  them  were  by  its 
spirit.  It  is  evident  that  the  law  was  designed  for  voluntary  use, 
as  a  privilege,  and  not  to  be  forced  upon  its  subjects  ; — much  less 
that  they  should  be  hired,  bought  to  use  a  power,  which  they  knew 
nothing  about,  and  would  not  desire,  except  as  they  were  paid  for  it. 

The  well-known  ability  and  practice  of  passing  the  same  natu- 
ralization papers  from  one  hand  to  another,  and  of  using  dead 
men's  papers — as  in  the  case  of  the  poor  widow  at  Baltimore,  who 
sold  the  use  of  her  dead  husband's  right  seventeen  times  at  one 
election,  for  one  dollar  each — comprehend  a  large  list  of  frauds  in 


THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CAMPAIGN    OF    1644.  437 

the  city  of  New  York.  In  this  way  an  adopted  citizen's  right  is 
not  only  many  times  more  available  during  his  life,  than  that  of  a 
citizen  native  born,  but  it  continues  to  be  used  with  a  multiplied 
power  after  his  death  !  The  volunteer  practice  of  obtaining  what 
is  called  a  legal  residence  in  several  wards,  and  in  several  districts 
of  the  same  ward,  and  then  appearing  as  many  times  at  the  polls 
to  vote,  in  a  different  dress,  and  in  other  ways  disguised,  is  another 
mode  of  fraud  practised  to  a  large  extent.  Hundreds  of  young 
men  go  the  rounds  of  the  city  the  whole  of  an  election  day,  fre- 
quently changing  dress,  and  offering  their  votes,  which  are  often 
received  without  being  challenged,  and  when  challenged,  they  pass 
on  to  another,  making  open  boast  of  it,  and  saying,  "  He  is  a  fool 
that  will  not  vote  as  many  times  as  he  can." 

But  a  new  mode  of  fraud  is  alleged  and  believed  to  have  been 
practised  on  a  large  scale,  in  the  city  of  New  York,  in  iS44  : 
That  of  employing  men  for  at  least  six  months  before  the  election 
to  obtain  residences  in  every  ward  and  district  of  the  city  (dis- 
tricts 79),  at  the  cheap  boarding-houses,  that  could  be  sworn  to, 
if  necessary,  they  being  known  as  boarders  at  all  these  places, 
though  not  always  there.  Being  entirely  devoted  to  the  task,  and 
paid  for  it,  they  could  visit  each  place  frequently,  and  be  recog- 
nised as  residents.  In  this  single  mode,  thousands  of  fraudulent 
votes  are  believed  to  have  been  given  in  the  city  of  New  York,  at 
the  presidential  election  of  1844.  The  funds  necessary  were 
raised  by  betting,  and  advanced.  Considering  all  the  various 
modes  by  which  fraudulent  votes  were  obtained,  five  thousand  for 
the  city  of  New  York,  and  fifteen  thousand  for  the  state,  would 
probably  be  an  under  estimate.  The  greatest  possible  effort  of 
this  kind  was  made,  inasmuch  as  the  relative  strength  of  parties 
in  the  state,  at  that  particular  juncture,  was  more  uncertain  than  in 
almost  any  other  state,  and  it  wag  therefore  difficult  to  determine 
what  amount  of  fraud  would  answer  the  purpose  of  victory. 

In  the  state  of  Georgia,  the  number  of  legal  voters,  under  sixty 
years  of  age,  can  be  exactly  ascertained  by  the  tax  list,  and  those 
over  sixty,  by  the  United  States  census,  the  aggregate  of  which  is 
78,611.  The  number  of  votes  actually  given  at  the  presidential 
election  of  1844,  was  86,152,  being  7,541  in  excess  of  the  legal 
voters  thus  ascertained.  When  it  is  considered,  that  sickness,  ab- 
sence, indifference,  and  other  causes,  keep  many  legal  voters  from 
the  polls,  this  difference  between  the  legal  and  actual  vote  is  in- 
creased, probably  by  some  thousands.     That  this  unlawful  increase 


438  THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CAMPAIGN    OF    1844. 

was  on  one  side,  is  proved  by  the  reports  in  detail  from  counties. 
For  example,  the  lawful  vote  of  Forsyth,  Lumpkin,  Habersham, 
and  Franklin  counties,  by  the  rules  above  recognised,  would  be 
3,202;  but  they  actually  returned  4,014  for  Mr.  Polk,  and  only 
1,821  for  Mr.  Clay — in  all  5,835  !  The  excess  over  the  lawful 
votes,  in  these  four  counties,  as  will  be  seen,  was  2,633  !  Their 
political  complexion  is  seen  from  the  vote.  In  the  four  whig 
counties  of  Madison,  Elbert,  Lincoln,  and  Columbia,  the  lawful 
vote  was  3,105.  The  votes  returned  were  3,123,  being  18  in 
excess  of  the  legal  vote — of  which  Mr.  Clay  received  2,124,  and 
Mr.  Polk  999.  It  is  true,  there  are  no  means  of  ascertaining 
which  party  gave  these  18  or  more  unlawful  votes ;  but  a  view  of 
the  result  in  the  other  four  counties,  affords  a  very  strong  presump- 
tion. Elbert,  the  strongest  whig  county  in  the  state,  gave  five 
votes  less  than  it  was  entitled  to. 

It  is  a  singular  fact,  that  there  were  no  evidences  of  fraud  in 
1844,  over  the  whole  country,  except  on  one  side.  It  is  a  proud 
boast  of  the  whig  party,  indeed,  if  it  shall  prove  true,  that  it  is 
impossible  for  them  to  practise  frauds  of  this  kind.  In  an  elec- 
tion of  the  city  of  New  York,  in  1838,  some  men  were  brought 
on  from  Philadelphia,  by  members  of  this  party,  for  the  alleged 
purpose  of  detecting  fraudulent  voters  on  the  other  side  from  the 
same  city,  and  the  correspondence  relating  to  the  affair  being  ex- 
posed, occasioned  the  charge,  that  those  men  were  brought  on  to 
vote.  It  is  believed  that  the  persons  concerned  in  it,  were  inno- 
cent. Whether  so  or  not,  it  was  their  own  private  affair,  and  not 
an  affair  of  the  party,  though  the  party  has  been  stigmatized  for 
it.  It  is  the  only  fact  of  the  kind  that  has  ever  transpired  in  the 
history  of  the  whig  party  of  the  United  States. 

The  experience  of  1844  proves,  that  betting  on  elections  must 
inevitably  be  ruinous  to  the  party  that  is  not  morally  capable 
of  practising  fraud.  It  was  betting  that  furnished  the  capital  that 
gained  the  victory,  and  the  defeated  party  paid  all  the  bills  of  cost 
for  their  own  overthrow.  ]f  the  individuals  who  bet  and  lost, 
could  have  suffered  alone,  all  the  upright  part  of  mankind  would 
say,  it  was  good  enough  for  them.  Confident  of  victory,  they 
staked  their  money  to  an  immense  aggregate,  which  was  imme- 
diately employed  to  secure  votes  against  them  and  their  party. 
Their  confidence  in  the  first  place,  was  doubtless  well-founded  ; 
but  the  use  they  made  of  it,  destroyed  its  own  basis,  and  it  tum- 
bled to  ruin.     Every  thousand  dollars  they  staked,  was  capable 


THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CAMPAIGN    OF    1844.  439 

of  purchasing  a  thousand  votes  against  them.  But  it  was  not  all 
disbursed  in  that  way.  A  small  fraction  of  it  would  answer  all 
the  purpose.  The  spoils  were  divided  between  those  who  bought, 
and  those  who  were  sold,  the  former  taking  good  care  of  them- 
selves. 

The  following  are  extracts  from  an  article  on  this  subject,  pub- 
lished in  the  May  and  June  numbers  of  the  American  Review  for 
1844  :— 

"  The  machinery  of  election  frauds  in  the  city  of  New  York,  is 
a  matter  so  important  to  the  fate  and  history  of  the  republican  sys- 
tem, and  yet  so  remote  from  the  knowledge  of  even  the  most  in- 
telligent politicians,  as  to  be  worthy  of  special  and  elaborate  notice 
in  an  '  American  Review,'  on  whose  pages  may  be  sought,  in 
other  times,  portions  of  the  history  of  the  age,  as  evidences  of  the 
success  or  failure  of  this  first  experiment  in  practical  democracy — 
actual  popular  self-government.  That  such  frauds  exist,  has  long 
been  notorious.  No  New-York  politician  would  risk  a  reputation 
for  veracity  and  intelligence  so  far  as  to  deny  it.  But  of  the  de- 
tails, the  system,  the  extent  of  these  operations,  much  remains  to 
be  communicated,  even  to  those  best  informed  and  most  active  in 
the  political  movements  of  the  last  (ew  years.  *  *  *  Betting 
on  elections  is  with  them  [political  gamblers]  a  study,  or  trade,  or 
craft,  the  most  important  branch  of  their  regular  business  :  and  the 
mode  of  securing  gain  to  themselves  is  the  same  as  in  those  man- 
ipulations of  cards  and  dice  which  to  the  dupe  only  are  games  of 
chance,  while  to  the  practised  cheat  they  truly  are  games  of  skill. 
Thus  they  play  in  politics,  where  the  ballot  is  the  die,  and  the 
voter  is  the  card.  They  play  at  this  game  also  with  "  loaded 
dice"  and  "  marked  cards."  And  whenever  they  enter  into  the 
business  of  elections  with  money  staked  upon  the  result,  they  pro- 
ceed with  as  much  confidence  in  the  production  ol  the  majorities 
on  which  their  winnings  depend,  as  they  do  in  their  gambling- 
houses,  where  all  the  supposed  chances  of  the  faro-table,  the  rou- 
lette, the  rovge  et  noir,  the  dicebox,  the  cut,  the  shufile,  and  (lie 
deal,  are  converted,  by  their  knavish  arts  and  secret  marks  and 
mechanical  contrivances,  into  positive  certainties  of  fraudulent  gain. 
*  *  *  At  an  early  period  in  the  year  1844,  the  fact  of  a  de- 
ficiency of  votes  in  a  majority  of  the  states,  for  the  candidates  of 
that  party  (whoever  might  be  nominated),  was  communicated 
among  the  responsible  leaders  and  managers  all  over  the  country  ; 
and  the  sense  of  the  necessity  of  supplying  that  deficiency  by 
fraud  was  simultaneously  impressed  on  all,  while  the  publications 
and  organs  of  the  party  in  every  quarter  studiously  maintained  a 
stout  show  of  confidence  in  a  certain  victory  by  the  lawful  suffra- 
ges of  the  people.     The  directors  and  agents  being  duly  possessed 


440  THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CAMPAIGN    OF    1614. 

of  this  fact,  took  care  to  obtain  first  a  just  and  veritable  estimate 
of  the  actual  numbers  of  the  lawful  voters  of  their  own  party,  and 
of  those  opposed  to  them.  After  doin^^  this,  was  assigned  to  the 
same  partisan  agents,  or  still  more  trustworthy  and  respectable  men 
selected  as  their  representatives,  the  mighty  task  of  creating  in  all 
the  various  practicable  sections  and  counties  a  fictitious  equivalent 
to  the  small  lawful  majority  of  voters  positively  known  to  exist 
against  them  in  each.  This  measure,  or  system  of  measures, 
was,  through  safe  and  determined  men,  put  in  operation  in  every 
part  of  the  United  States,  throughout  the  year  1844.  Before  the 
4th  of  March  in  that  year,  the  plan  was  completed,  and  was  in  in- 
cipient operation  from  the  extreme  northeast  to  the  remotest  south- 
west. The  direction  was  central.  The  apparent  origin  of  the 
scheme  was  in  the  national  capital  ;  but  there  were  some  in  the 
great  original  seat  of  fraud,  who  knew  from  what  source  the  pri- 
mary suggestions  of  the  scheme  had  proceeded,  who  could  trace 
in  the  history  of  New-York  legislation,  and  in  the  character  of  a 
peculiar  portion  of  a  New-York  population,  the  composition  of  de- 
tails suited  especially  to  previous  political  emergencies  in  this 
great  school  and  scene  of  political  crime. 

"  The  associated  gamblers  and  criminals  of  the  city  of  New 
York  had  for  many  years  maintained  a  peculiar  connexion  with 
the  cognate  fraternity  of  political  adventurers  and  speculators,  who 
formed  the  nucleus  and  directive  agency  of  'the  party'  here. 
Distinct  in  organization,  though  often  possessing  some  members  in 
common,  the  two  sub-communities  of  knavery  had  subsisted,  each 
in  its  own  sphere,  but  in  a  sympathetic  contact,  productive  of  re- 
ciprocal profit  incalculably  great,  and  consequendy  accumulating 
durability  by  duration. 

"  The  gamblers  had  long  been  in  the  habit  of  paying  to  the  re- 
sponsible agents  of  the  party  with  which  they  were  thus  associated, 
a  large  sum  of  money  just  before  each  election,  as  a  consideration 
for  secret  political  intelligence,  upon  which  they  could  make  their 
betting  calculations,  and  also  as  a  means  of  bringing  about  the 
purposed  effects  which  constituted  the  certain  details  of  success. 
The  authorized  general  committee  of  the  party  made  an  exact, 
thorough  canvass  of  the  actual  lawful  vote  of  the  city  just  before 
each  election,  and,  upon  that,  decided  how  many  spurious  votes 
were  wanted  to  secure  practical  results,  and  where  they  were  want- 
ed and  could  be  desirably  bestowed.  They  could  announce  to 
their  secret  allies,  with  great  precision,  the  real  majorities  against 
them  ;  and  then  they  arranged  with  them,  in  like  precision,  the 
exact  apparent  majorities  in  every  ward  or  district,  which  were  to 
be  produced  by  their  joint  means  and  agencies  in  the  manufacture 
of  false  vofes.  The  sum  raised  by  the  gamblers,  and  contributed 
to  the  party  treasury  as  their  equivalent  for  secret  intelligence,  was 
$3,000  in  the  spring  of  1844,  and  did  not  much  vary  from  that 


THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CAMPAIGN    OF    1844.  441 

amount  for  some  time  previous.  This  both  paid  the  expenses  of 
the  laborious  preliminary  canvass,  and  furnished  means  for  making 
good  its  deficiencies  by  illegal  ballots.  The  gamblers  could  also 
furnish  the  instruments  and  agents  of  fraud  from  among  their  re- 
tainers and  dependants.  All  the  powerful  influences  of  the  law- 
less and  criminal  class  of  the  community  were  within  their  reach. 
The  consciousness  of  a  common  character  and  purpose,  connecting 
them  securely  with  those  who  avowedly  live  by  statute-breaking 
villany,  was  a  tie  of  irresistible,  mutually-attractive  force,  which 
enabled  them  to  communicate  always  with  perfect  confidence  and 
safety.  They  could,  therefore,  at  the  briefest  notice,  call  out  an 
auxiliary  legion  as  prompt  to  execute  the  measures  of  fraud,  as 
their  patrons  were  ingenious  to  design,  invent,  or  direct. 

"  With  the  information  thus  distinctly  furnished,  the  gamblers 
could  always  make  the  business  of  '  betting  on  elections'  a  game 
of  skill  and  certainty  to  themselves — a  game  of  chance  only  to 
fools.  The  number  of  lawful  votes  belonging  to  each  party  in  each 
ward,  the  number  of  absentees,  of  doubtful  and  undecided  voters, 
the  number  of  illegal  votes  required  and  secured  to  produce  the 
desired  majorities,  the  amount  of  those  majorities  in  every  instance, 
with  an  exactness  varying  only  by  tens  in  a  ward,  and  by  hundreds 
in  the  whole  city — were  all  fixed  data  foreknown  to  the  gamblers 
and  '  sporting  characters'  through  revelations  thus  given.  The 
secresy,  vigilance,  and  activity,  necessary  to  the  safe  and  sure  re- 
tention of  these  matters  among  the  favored  class,  were  easily  main- 
tained by  a  body  of  men  with  faculties  so  sharpened  and  discip- 
lined by  continued  exercise  in  unlawful,  dishonest  pursuits. 
Honest  men,  or  those  habituated  only  to  pursuit  of  gain  by  open, 
respectable  business,  would  be,  intellectually  as  well  as  morally, 
less  capable  of  the  tasks  involved  in  such  an  undertaking.  The 
secret  might  escape,  by  occasional  relaxation  of  the  needful  self- 
restraint  and  caution  ;  the  needful  measures  would  be  often  neg- 
lected ;  and  the  execution  of  deep  plans  would  often  fail  by  de- 
ficient arrangements,  if  they  were  left  to  any  men  but  such  as  were 
occupied  habitually  in  concealing  their  own  gainful  violations  of 
the  law  of  the  land,  and  of  the  decent  usages  of  respectable  so- 
ciety. 

"  The  importance  and  value  of  the  business  of  betting  on  elec- 
tions, made  it  worthy  of  the  expenditure  of  time,  money,  and  labor, 
which  was  so  freely  lavished  on  these  preparations.  It  opened  a 
much  wider  and  higher  field  to  the  operations  of  the  craft  than  was 
furnished  in  the  dark  dens  and  closely-curtained  saloons  of  the  pro- 
fessional gamblers  and  their  victims.  Long  usage  and  the  tolerated 
irregularities  of  high  political  excitement  had  made  this  form  of 
gambling  nominally  respectable — a  little  more  so  than  the  same 
operations  on  the  race-course.  It  Avas  the  most  dignified  and  re- 
spectable variety  of  the  gamester-craft,  sanctioned  by  the  public 


442  THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CAMPAIGN    OF    1844. 

example  of  many  of  the  most  honorable  men  in  society.  Editors, 
high  office-holders,  merchants,  and  others  of  well-established  char- 
acter, in  both  parties,  encouraged  it  by  word  and  action.  The 
vice  was  excused,  or  justified,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  necessary 
to  offer  and  take  wagers  publicly,  in  order  to  evince,  to  the  doubt- 
ful and  wavering  portion  of  the  community,  a  proper  confidence 
in  the  success  of  the  party,  and  thus  to  retain  many  votes  which 
are  always  reserved  to  the  last,  and  are  then  given  to  that  which 
appears  to  be  the  strongest  side.  Under  these  pretences  and  in- 
fluences, were  brought  within  the  reach  of  professional  gamblers, 
many  who  could  in  no  other  way  be  induced  to  put  themselves  in 
the  power  of  such  persons.  Thousands  who  would  gamble  in 
nothing  else,  gambled  largely  in  politics,  without  shame  or  scruple, 
and  eagerly  rushed  into  this  disgraceful  competition  with  the  out- 
casts of  society,  till,  for  some  months,  the  whole  country  seemed 
turned  into  one  great  race-course,  fancy-stock  exchange,  or  gaming- 
house, where  the  slang  of  jockeys,  brokers,  faro-bankers,  and 
thimble-riggers,  was  converted  to  the  expression  of  political  chances, 
displacing  the  decent  language  in  which  patriots  and  republicans 
were  wont,  in  better  days,  to  speak  of  the  dangers  of  the  common- 
wealth and  the  duties  of  the  citizen.  In  all  places  of  public  re- 
sort, in  the  streets,  the  hotels,  the  oyster-shops,  every  political  dis- 
cussion was  almost  inevitably  terminated  by  the  tender  of  a  wager 
from  some  of  the  gamblers  or  their  agents,  who  were  continually 
prow'ling  around,  and  seeking  to  provoke  or  worry  incautious  men 
into  '  backing  up  their  opinion  with  their  money.' 

"  The  effect  on  the  result,  designed  and  soon  produced  by  such 
operations,  was  this  :  At  least  half  a  million  of  dollars  was  offered 
[in  New  York],  pledged,  and  secured  to  the  gambling  fraternity 
and  their  political  coadjutors,  by  the  professed  friends  of  morality, 
order,  peace,  and  protective  legislation,  upon  which  they  might 
draw,  a  few  months  after  sight,  to  pay  all  the  expenses  of  the  elec- 
tion. A  much  larger  amount  than  this  was  staked  ;  but  this  sum 
was  early  secured  by  the  professional  speculators  in  elections  ;  and 
it  was  for  them  to  decide  how  much  of  this  amount  it  was  neces- 
sary to  anticipate  in  expenditures  to  insure  their  bets.  Five  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  V  With  half  the  money,  they  could  beat 
the  strongest  candidate  ever  presented  by  any  party!" 

It  will  be  seen,  from  this  review  of  the  causes  of  the  whig  de- 
feat in  1844,  that  most  of  them  were  accidental,  and  might  have 
been  avoided  by  prudence,  foresight,  party-discipline,  and  sound 
policy.  Some  of  them  were  perfectly  unnecessary  and  wanton 
mistakes — difficulties  apparently  invoked  and  sought  for — as  if  the 
whole  party,  with  the  best  chances  a  party  ever  had,  and  with  a  chief 
of  world-wide  fame,  had  tried  to  defeat  themselves,  and  w-ith  dif- 


THE    PRESIDENTIAL    CAMPAIGN    OF    1844.  443 

ficulty  succeeded  !  It  is  true,  that  it  is  like  putting  the  hand  to 
the  sun,  to  turn  his  course  backward  from  west  to  east,  by  fighting 
against  the  word  "  democracy."  But  that  is  the  folly  of  the 
party,  who  are  themselves  the  true  democracy,  and  whose  chief 
has  never  ceased  to  fight  its  battles  against  regal  usurpations.  It 
is  true,  that  the  single  cause  of  fraud,  was  enough  to  beat  them, 
and  did  beat  them  ;  but  they  furnished  the  money  to  buy  the  votes 
by  betting. 

The  returned  majority  for  Mr.  Polk  in  the  state  of  New 
York,  was  5,106;  in  Pennsylvania,  6,332;  in  Georgia,  1,944; 
in  Louisiana,  699.  It  is  evident  from  the  facts  disclosed  in 
this  chapter,  that  the  frauds  in  each  of  these  states,  were  con- 
siderably, in  two  or  three  of  them  largely,  in  excess  of  these  ma- 
jorities. It  is,  therefore,  undoubtedly  true,  that,  by  legal  right, 
the  electoral  vote  of  the  states  of  l^ew  York,  Pennsylvania,  Geor- 
gia, and  Louisiana,  for  1844,  belongs  to  Henry  Clay,  in  addition 
to  the  vote  actually  returned  for  him,  and  that  he  was  legally 
elected  president  of  the  United  States  by  an  electoral  majority  of 
183  against  92  ;  but  it  is  not  true,  that  the  forms  of  law  have  so 
operated  as  to  declare  it;  and  Henry  Clay  is,  notwith- 
standing, IN  retirement  ! 


444  THE    DISAPPOINTMENT. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 


THE    DISAPPOINTMENT. 


Remarks  on  the  Occasion. — Extracts  from  Letters  of  Numerous  Persons,  of  all 
Classes,  in  all  Parts  of  the  Union,  expressive  of  their  Feelings  in  "View  of  the 
Result  of  the  Presidential  Election  of  1844. — Notice  of  Similar  Documents  of 
Political  Associations. 

Mr.  Clay  has  somewhere  remarked,  in  substance,  that  it  is  not 
often  a  whole  nation  can  rouse  itself  to  an  effort  like  that  which 
characterized  the  movement  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  in 
1840.  This  is  eminently  true.  They  who  passed  through  that 
struggle,  and  sympathized  with  it,  can  not  but  feel,  that  it  was  a 
great  national  agony.  Many  years  of  suffering  in  all  their  public 
and  private  interests,  from  the  mal-administrationof  the  government, 
and  the  hope  of  relief,  roused  the  people  to  a  sublime  aspiration, 
and  by  one  mighty  movement,  they  burst  their  chains,  and  thought 
themselves  free.  The  death  of  the  chief  they  had  put  forward, 
and  the  infamous  apostacy  of  his  lieutenant,  who  became  invested 
with  all  the  powers  of  his  principal,  was  a  shock  which  a  free  peo- 
ple never  before  encountered  in  an  equal  degree,  and  under  such 
aggravating  circumstances.  There  was  a  universal  collapse  of 
feeling,  and  the  nation  was  disheartened.  Who  can  be  trusted  ? 
was  the  despairing  inquiry  of  more  than  every  second  man.  To 
marshal  the  people  again  for  another  like  struggle,  after  such  dis- 
appointment, was  more  than  human  power  could  do,  till  some  long 
interval  had  passed,  or  some  intolerable  suffering  had  arrived. 
They  hoped  against  hope.  The  tariff  of  1842  was  a  boon,  on 
which  they  could  subsist  under  great  disadvantages  arising  from 
the  absence  of  other  congenial  measures,  and  from  the  want  of 
confidence  in  the  administration  of  public  affairs.  Like  a  magnan- 
imous people,  they  sufiered  the  wrong,  because  there  was  no  rem- 
edy, till  another  four  years  should  have  rolled  round. 

But  there  was  a  man  in  the  midst  of  them,  on  whom  the  eye  of 
every  true  patriot  rested  ;  who  had  repeatedly  carried  them  through 


THE    DISAPPOINTMENT.  445 

great  and  critical  national  emergencies  ;  who,  for  two  generations, 
had  stood  prominent  and  influential  in  the  national  councils  ;  whose 
eloquent  tongue  had  moved  distant  nations  that  had  only  heard  of 
his  fame  ;  who  had  taught  the  people  of  the  United  States  the 
A  B  C  of  the  constitution,  and  graduated  them  in  the  science  of 
the  only  true  national  policy  ;  who,  for  a  long  course  of  years, 
standing  on  the  platform  of  fundamental  law,  had  fought  the  battles 
of  the  democracy  against  regal  pretensions  ;  who  had.  sacrificed  all 
his  personal  chances  for  the  good  and  glory  of  his  country — a 

TRIED  PATRIOT AN  UNRIVALLED   STATESMAN. 

It  was  to  this  man  the  nation  looked  in  its  day  of  adversity.  It 
was  this  man  which  the  nation  intended  should  be  placed  at  its 
head  on  the  4th  of  March,  1845,  and  whom  all  the  people  knew 
ought  to  have  been  placed  there  long  before.  They  desired  it, 
they  purposed  it,  they  decreed  it ;  not  a  man  in  the  ranks  of  his 
opponents  doubted  that  such  would  be  the  result,  and  no  small 
fraction  of  his  former  opponents  themselves  desired  it,  and  would 
have  voted  for  him,  if  they  had  ever  dreamed  it  was  necessary  to 
secure  the  end  so  universally  expected. 

And  there  was  a  heart,  a  soul — the  soul  of  the  people — cluster- 
ing around  this  faithful  and  long-tried  sentinel  of  freedom — such 
affection,  such  regard,  such  sentiments,  as,  to  the  same  extent,  in 
the  same  amount,  and  with  an  equal  degree,  never,  perhaps,  cen- 
tred on  any  public  man,  of  any  nation,  in  any  age.  It  was  hal- 
lowed by  time,  by  personal  worth,  by  faithful  and  unrewarded 
public  services,  of  older  date  than  the  ordinary  age  of  man. 

And  yet  this  man  was  rejected,  in  the  way,  and  by  means 
already  told  !  The  cup  that  was  brought  to  the  lips,  was  dashed 
to  the  ground  !  The  flood  of  regrets  that  poured  in  upon  him, 
after  the  general  disappointment,  is  an  unexampled  proof  of  the 
strong  and  undying  personal  regard  of  a  people,  toward  such  a 
public  servant,  most  of  whom  knew  him  only  by  his  deeds  and  by 
his  fame. 

The  author  of  this  work,  having  had  access  to  this  correspond- 
ence, has  taken  the  liberty  of  making  a  short  chapter  of  extracts 
from  the  voluminous  files  that  lay  under  his  hand.  The  letters 
were  from  all  parts  of  the  Union,  from  all  characters  and  profes- 
sions, and  from  all  conditions  of  life,  as  the  extracts  will  evince, 
most  of  which  were  dated  in  November  and  December,  1844,  and 
many  of  them  from  individuals  who  had  no  personal  acquaintance 
with  the  object  of  their  regard.     As  they  were  private,  and  never 


446  THE    DISAPPOINTMENT. 

designed  for  publication,  the  signatures  and  places  are  omitted,  the 
extracts  being  numbered,  to  show,  that  each  number  is  from  a  dif- 
ferent person.  Little  more  is  taken  than  a  single  sentiment  from 
each,  and  from  some  but  one  short  sentence.  It  hardly  need  be 
said,  that  they  are  clustered  here  as  gems  of  moral  beauty — a 
cheering  oasis  in  a  desert — evincing,  for  the  hopes  of  mankind, 
that  there  is  yet  virtue  in  the  land,  to  be  set  over  against  the  sin 
and  shame  of  national  ingratitude  : — 

(1.)  *  *  *  "  The  agony  is  over.  Be  assured,  sir,  the  issue 
has  made  more  virtuous  hearts  to  bleed,  than  triumph.  It  may 
make  us  mourn,  but  not  blush.  I  hope,  sir,  you  are  satisfied,  that 
your  countrymen  are  not  insensible  to  the  debt  of  gratitude  they 
owe  you,  and  which  they  would  lavish  fortunes  to  repay."   *  *  * 

(2.)  *  *  *  "  What  a  wound  has  been  inflicted  upon  the  honor 
and  interests  of  the  country  !  I  pray  God,  that  truth  may  yet  pre- 
vail, and  our  republican  institutions  be  saved.  It  affords  me  some 
satisfaction,  under  the  adverse  state  of  things  that  exists,  to  assure 
you  of  my  abiding  esteem  and  cordial  friendship."  *  *  * 

(3.)  *  *  *  "  I  write  with  an  aching  heart,  and  ache  it  must. 
God  Almighty  save  us  !  Although  our  hearts  are  broken,  and 
bleeding,  and  our  bright  hopes  are  crushed,  we  feel  proud  of  our 
candidate.  God  bless  you  !  Your  countrymen  do  bless  you.  All 
know  how  to  appreciate  the  man,  who  has  stood  in  the  first  rank 
of  American  patriots.  Though  unknown  to  you,  you  are  by  no 
means  a  stranger  to  me."  *  *  * 

(4.)  *  *  *  "  Sir,  we  love  you  now,  better  than  ever."  *  *  * 

(5.)  *  *  *  "  I  have  hardly  ventured  to  touch  my  pen  to  paper, 
dear  and  honored  sir,  to  speak  of  the  catastrophe  which  has  befallen 
our  country.  Its  effects  are  beginning  to  develop  themselves  with 
frightful  rapidity.  In  the  midst  of  its  anguish,  the  public  heart 
heaves  with  an  oppressive  sense  of  gratitude  toward  yourself."  *  *  * 

(6.)  *  *  *  "  I  do  not  write  to  you,  my  dear  sir,  to  offer  condo- 
lence, which,  I  know,  would  be  misplaced  and  presumptuous.  It 
is  my  solemn  belief,  that  of  all  men,  you  have  the  least  real  cause 
to  regret  the  result."  *  *  * 

(7.)  *  *  *  "  The  result  of  the  late  election,  although  disastrous 
to  the  country,  furnishes  a  proud  vindication  of  your  principles  and 
fame.  No  man  ever  before  received  so  glorious  a  testimonial. 
The  defeat  is  nothing  to  you.  It  is  the  people  who  are  to  be  the 
sufferers."  *  *  * 

(8.)  *  *  *  "  You,  sir,  and  the  holy  cause,  of  which  you  were 
the  honored  representative,  have  been  sacrificed."  *  *  * 

(9.)  *  *  *  "  Your  whole  life,  sir,  has  been  devoted  to  the  best 
interests  of  the  American  people."  *  *  * 

(10.)  *  *  *  "  I  do  not  regret  the  result  on  your  account,  for 
you  have  long  since  filled  the  measure  of  your  own,  as  well  as 


THE    DISAPPOINTMENT.  447 

of  your  country's  glory.  The  office  of  president  could  add  noth- 
ing to  your  fame,  nor  brighten  one  line  of  your  history.  I  regret 
only  the  degraded  condition  of  our  country.  If  our  people  will 
rush  to  ruin,  who  shall  hinder  them  ?"   *  *  * 

(11.)  *  *  *  "  Your  friends  have  sustained  the  heaviest  blow 
that  could  have  befallen  them.  You,  I  trust,  will  feel  no  other 
concern  about  it,  than  that  which  naturally  arises  from  your  sym- 
pathy with  them.  You  are  perhaps  the  only  man  in  the  nation, 
that  can  lose  nothing  by  the  result.  Success  could  have  added 
nothing  to  your  name,  and  nothing,  I  believe,  to  your  happiness. 
You  occupy  now,  but  too  truly,  the  position  described  as  present- 
ing the  noblest  of  human  spectacles  : — 

"'  A  great  man,  struggling  with  the  storms  of  fate, 
And  nobly  falling,  with  a  falling  state.' "  *  *  * 

(12.)  *  *  *  "  You  enjoy  the  confidence  of  the  country  to  a 
greater  extent  than  you  ever  have  done.  No  person  has  a  stronger 
hold  upon  the  feelings  of  the  American  people.  Believe  me,  'tis 
adversity  that  tries,  not  only  the  statesman,  but  his  friends.  God 
bless  you."  *  *  * 

(13.)  *  *  *  "  That  siich  a  cause,  under  such  a  leader,  should 
have  been  lost,  is  a  r^roach  to  the  general  intelligence,  on  which 
the  safety  of  a  republic  rests,  and  creates  the  saddest  presages  of 
the  future."  *  *  * 

(14.)  *  *  *  "  The  ways  of  nations,  like  those  of  Providence,  are 
sometimes  mysterious  and  inscrutable.  With  the  deepest  interest 
in  what  concerns  you  personally,  I  have  been  solely  occupied  with 
these  gloomy  and  portentous  occurrences.  As  for  you,  they  affect 
you  no  more,  than  as  depriving  you  of  the  means  of  further  patri- 
otic usefulness.  You  have  long  since  passed  that  point,  where 
office  could  confer  additional  celebrity,  or  add  one  inch  to  the 
noble  pre-eminence  which  history  will  assign  you.  The  time  will 
come  when  all  will  be  ashamed  of  these  transactions.  May  God 
protect  us  from  occasion  to  mourn  over  them  in  sorrow  and  bitter 
repentance!"  *  *  * 

(15.)  *  *  *  "I  can  no  longer  resist  the  inclination  which  impels 
me  to  commune  with  you  on  the  disastrous  result  of  the  efforts  of  the 
whig  party  to  do  justice  to  you  for  your  long  and  signal  services 
to  your  country.  God  only  knows  to  what  we  are  destined.  I 
offer  you  no  condolence  on  this  sad  event.  The  country,  not  you, 
is  to  be  the  sufferer.  I  confess,  that  the  deep  respect  I  felt  for 
you  individually,  founded  on  your  public  services,  and  on  those 
personal  qualities,  which,  on  our  first  acquaintance,  took  a  lodg- 
ment in  my  heart,  never  to  be  effaced,  was  an  additional  motive  in 
my  efforts  to  promote  your  election.  That  you  may  live  long  to 
enjoy  the  continued  love  and  confidence  of  your  countrymen,  and 
all  the  blessings  of  this  life,  is  my  fervent  prayer."  *  *  * 


448  THE    DISAPPOINTMENT. 

(16.)  *  *  *  "An  orphan  I  sought  sanctuary  in  the  house  of  a 
lad}^  who  taught  me  to  love  and  honor  your  name.  I  am  no  pol- 
itician, hut  I  prayed  that  you  might  stand  at  the  head  of  this  nation. 
Over  the  disappointment,  few  have  shed  bitterer  tears  than  I.  The 
American  heart  kindles  at  the  recollection  of  your  services.  Your 
destiny  on  earth  has  been  glorious.  Let  the  crowning  act  of  your 
life  be  a  cordial  embrace  and  public  acknowledgment  of  the  Prince 
of  Life."   *  *  * 

(17.)  *  *  *  "I  have  buried  a  revolutionary  father,  who  poured 
out  his  blood  for  his  country;  I  have  followed  a  mother,  brothers, 
sisters,  and  children,  to  the  grave;  and  although  I  hope  I  have  felt, 
under  all  these  afflictions,  as  a  son,  a  brother,  and  a  father,  should 
feel,  yet  nothing  has  so  crushed  me  to  the  earth,  and  depressed  my 
spirits,  as  the  result  of  our  late  political  contest."  *  *  * 

(18.)  *  *  *  "I  have  thought  for  three  or  four  days  I  would 
write  you,  but  really  I  am  unmanned.  All  is  gone  !  I  see  nothing 
but  despair  depicted  in  every  countenance.  I  confess  that  nothing 
has  happened  to  shake  my  confidence  in  our  ability  to  sustain  a 
free  government,  so  much  as  this.  A  cloud  of  gloom  hangs  over 
the  future.     May  God  save  the  country!"  *  *  * 

(19.)  *  *  *  "Could  you  behold  the  depression  of  spirit  and 
sinking  of  heart,  that  pervade  the  community,  I  am  sure  you  would 
feel,  '  Well,  in  very  truth,  my  defeat  has  been  the  occasion  of  a 
more  precious  tribute  and  vindication,  than  the  majority  of 
numbers.'  "   *  *  * 

(20.)  *  *  *  "I  feel  as  if  it  would  be  some  relief  to  express  to 
you  the  deep  grief  with  which  my  heart  is  penetrated.  Never  was 
interest  so  intense  manifested  in  behalf  of  any  public  man.  Your 
reputation  as  a  statesman  and  a  patriot  remains  untouched,  or  is 
rendered  more  brilliant,  still  commanding,  as  it  long  has'com- 
manded,  the  admiration  of  the  world."   *  *  * 

(21.)  *  *  *  "Permit  me,  a  stranger,  to  address  you.  From 
my  boyhood  1  have  loved  no  other  American  statesman  so  much, 
except  Washington.  I  write  from  the  overflowings  of  my  heart. 
T  admire  and  love  you  more  than  ever.  If  T  may  never  have  the 
happiness  of  seeing  you  on  earth,  may  I  meet  you  in  heaven."  *  *  * 

(22.)  *  *  *  "  You  have  done  enough  for  fame.  The  country 
alone  was  to  have  been  benefited  by  your  election.  When  poster- 
ity shall  wonder  you  did  not  obtain  the  first  office  in  the  gift  of 
your  countrymen,  the  only  answer  that  can  be  given,  will  raise  you 
higher  than  the  office  could  have  done  :  '  It  is  because  he  had  rafh/r 
be  RIGHT  than  he  a  presidenU''  "   *  *  * 

(23.)  *  *  *  "  The  deplorable  result  of  the  late  election  has 
here,  as  everywhere,  filled  the  hearts  of  your  friends  with  pain  and 
mortification.  And  this  feelinsr  has  not  been  confined  to  voters, 
but  has  extended  itself  through  all  ages,  sexes,  and  conditions, 
'  from  lisping  infancy,  to  hoary  age.'      We  were  not  aware,  until 


THE    DISAPPOINTMENT.  449 

we  saw  our  anticipations  blighted,  how  strong  a  hold  you  had 
upon  our  affections."   *  *  * 

(24.)  *  *  *  "We  know  not  how  to  express  what  we  feel ;  but 
we  assure  you,  that  never — never,  even  in  the  days  when  you  were 
universally  recognised  as  the  guardian  genius  of  our  country — 
never,  when  your  triumph  was  deemed  most  certain,  have  you  held 
so  deep,  so  warm  a  place  in  every  whig  heart,  as  at  this  hour."   *  *  * 

(25.)  *  *  *  "The  prostration  of  those  high  and  glorious  prin- 
ciples, of  which  thou  hast  been  so  long  the  great  and  unwearied 
champion,  is  our  country's  loss.  It  is  for  this  I  mourn,  that,  in 
thy  retirement,  one  of  the  strongest  advocates  of  those  great  prin- 
ciples, is  removed. 

"  '  But  thou  art  freedom's  now,  and  fame's — 
One  of  the  few,  the  immortal  names, 
That  were  not  born  to  die.' "  *   *    * 

(26.)  *  *  *  "I  have  been  reluctant  to  admit,  that  republics  are 
ungrateful."  ♦  *  * 

(27.)  "London,  Nov.  27,  1844.  In  an  hour  I  shall  be  on 
board  a  steamer  for  the  continent.  I  will  not  lose  a  moment  in 
conveying  to  you  the  heartfelt  emotion,  amazement,  and  grief, 
with  which  I  received  the  news,  just  arrived,  of  the  result  of  the 
presidential  election.  Great  God!  Is  it  possible?  Have  our 
people  given  this  astonishing,  this  alarming  proof  of  the  madness 
to  which  party  phrensy  can  carry  them !  The  hopes  of  the  wise 
and  the  good,  in  the  new  and  the  old  world,  rested  upon  you. 
But  my  heart  is  sick.     May  God  for  ever  bless  you."  *  *  * 

(28.)  *  *  *  "  Could  the  people  of  this  country  erect  to  the 
name  of  their  noblest  citizen,  a  monument  as  high  as  heaven, 
Rhode  Island  would  claim  to  lay  the  cap-stone,  and  would  prove 
her  right.  The  devotion  of  this  state  is  personal,  as  well  as  political. 
'  Could  my  life  insure  the  success  of  Henry  Clay,  I  would  freely  lay 
it  down  this  day,''  said  an  old  sea-captain  at  Providence,  on  the 
morning  of  our  late  election.  Nor  would  this  language  be  mere 
hyperbole  in  the  mouths  of  very  many  of  our  citizens,  who  have 
already  exposed  their  lives,  and  are  ready  to  do  so  again,  in  de- 
fence of  '  law  and  order,'  with  which  cause  your  name  has  be- 
come identified  among  us."  *  *  * 

(29.  Translated  from  the  French.)  "I  am  a  Louisianian,  sixty- 
six  years  old,  am  sick,  and  have  to  employ  both  hands  to  trace 
imperfectly  these  kw  lines.  The  ingratitude  of  the  United  States 
heightens  in  my  eyes  the  brilliancy  of  your  reputation  for  the  pages 
of  history.  Your  enemies  themselves  pay  the  tribute  of  admi- 
ration to  your  high  capacities,  truly  American,  and  are  surprised 
that  Henry  Clay  has  not  received  the  palm  due  to  his  eminent  ser- 
vices. They  recall  to  my  mind  Arlstides  banished,  Socrates  poi- 
soned.    To  be  the  benefactor  of  a  nation,  demands  a  concurrence 

Vol.  II.— 29 


450  THE    DISAPPOINTMENT. 

of  circumstances,  which  do  not   often   occur   in  a  succession  of 
ages."   *  *  * 

(30.  From  a  ladij.)  "I  had  indulged  the  most  joyous  antici- 
pations in  view  of  that  pohtical  campaign,  which  has  now  been  so 
ingloriously  ended.  I  considered,  that  the  nation  could  never  feel 
satisfied,  until  it  had  cancelled,  in  some  degree,  the  onerous  obli- 
gations so  long  due  to  its  faithful  and  distinguished  son.  I  con- 
sidered, too,  that  in  an  exigency  like  ours,  the  spirit  of  liberty 
would  once  more  be  enkindled,  and  that  you,  who  had  shielded  it 
in  the  most  dangerous  conjunctures,  would  alone  be  looked  to  as 
the  only  safety  of  the  republic.  *  *  *  Apart  from  all  the  feelings 
of  patriotism,  and  the  poignant  remorse,  which  a  nation's  ingrati- 
tude must  bring  upon  us,  I  must  say,  sir,  that  for  yourself  you 
have  much  cause  for  gratulation.  You  could  not  have  been  hon- 
ored by  the  presidential  station.  I  do  not  presume,  therefore, 
to  offer  the  language  of  sympathy  to  you  as  an  individual,  but  in 
behalf  of  that  country,  that  party,  and  the  great  principles  of  that 
party,  with  which  you  are  so  inseparably  identified."  *  *  * 

(31.)  "  As  thou  art  undoubtedly  loaded  with  letters  at  the  pres- 
ent time,  it  may  appear  singular  to  thee,  that  an  entire  stranger 
should  take  the  liberty  of  addressing  thee.  But  so  strong  are  my 
feelings  of  attachment  and  respect  for  one,  who  has  so  faithfully 
and  successfully  devoted  his  whole  life  to  the  public  good,  that  I 
can  not  well  refrain.  I  do  not  condole  with  thee  on  thy  own  ac- 
count— for  the  presidency  would  add  nothing  to  the  honored  name 
of  Henry  Clay.  *  *  *  I  pray  that  the  elasticity,  which  thou  hast 
always  displayed,  when  pressed  most  heavily,  and  by  which  thou 
hast  been  enabled  to  rise  for  thy  country's  good,  when  in  many  an 
exigency  she  has  most  required  thy  help,  may  still  be  vouchsafed 
to  thee.  My  wife  and  four  boys  desire  their  hearty  love  to  thee. 
I  would  not  add  a  feather  to  thy  burdens,  but  I  should  much  value 
a  single  line  from  thee,  that  my  children  may  look  upon  thy  auto- 
graph, when  you  and  I  shall  have  ceased  to  mingle  in  the  turmoil 
of  this  fleeting  scene,  and  as  I  humbly  trust,  through  the  mercy 
of  our  Redeemer,  may  be  united  to  that  glorious  host,  that  sur- 
I'ounds  the  throne  of  God." 

(32.)  *  *  *  "  I  do  assure  you,  sir,  that  my  poor  sorrow-stricken 
heart,  is  incapable  of  flattery.  I  only  wish,  in  truth  and  honesty, 
to  describe  to  you  my  feelings.  1  have  been  a  child  of  misfortune 
all  my  life;  I  have  sustained  many  severe  losses  of  dear  friends; 
but  nothing  has  hurt  me  like  this.  Oh,  God  !  Is  there  no  consti- 
tutional provision,  by  which  illegal  votes  can  be  purged  out,  and  the 
legally-elected  president  restored  to  this  nation  v  *  *  *  I  have  no 
children  to  be  enslaved,  and  am  an  old  man.  They  can't  hurt  me, 
or  my  wife.     But  it  is  for  my  country,  that  my  heart  bleeds."  *  *  * 

(33.)  *  *  *  "  The  sentiments  of  your  Connecticut  friends  are 
echoed  from  every  quarter  of  the  Union,  with  equal  fervor  and  sin- 


THE    DISAPPOINTMENT.  451 

cerity.  I  avail  myself  of  the  occasion  to  blend  with  th^m  those  of 
one,  who,  for  many  years,  has  bent  himself  to  the  work  of  giving 
permanence  to  our  institutions,  and  substantial  prosperity  to  the 
country,  by  placing  the  reins  of  government  in  your  hands." 

(34.  From  a  lady.)  "  My  mind  is  a  perfect  chaos,  when  t  dwell 
upon  the  events,  which  have  occurred  within  the  last  few  weeks. 
My  heart  refused  to  credit  the  sad  reality.  Had  I  the  eloquence 
of  all  livin-^  tongues,  I  could  not  shadow  forth  the  deep,  deep  sor- 
row, that  has  thrilled  my  inmost  soul.  The  bitterest  tears  have 
flowed  like  rain-drops  from  my  eyes.  Never,  till  now,  could  I 
believe  that  truth  and  justice  would  not  prevail.  Among  the  indi- 
cations of  decadence  of  the  republics  of  olden  times,  was  ingrati- 
tude to  the  great  and  wise.  Then,  as  their  punishment  from  an 
avenging  God,  came  the  avalanche  of  northern  barbarians,  which 
swept  away  all  but  their  memory.  In  the  dim  mists  of  the  future, 
I  seem  to  discover  the  downfall  of  this  republic  for  a  similar 
cause — ingratitude  to  you,  who,  for  so  many  years,  have  been  the 
sentinel  on  the  watch-tower,  guarding  her  liberties,  and  pouring 
out  the  treasures  of  your  great  and  mighty  mind  in  her  service.  I 
feel  the  patriotic  blood  of  my  brave  grandsire  rush  in  indignant 
torrents  to  my  heart,  when  I  see  the  situation  of  my  country,  for 
which  he  fought  and  bled." 

A  counterpane,  of  fine  needlework,  was  made  by  Mrs.  Ann 
Warner,  of  Harford  county,  Maryland,  in  the  ninety-third  year  of 
jjgr  age — done  in  a  iew  weeks  without  aid — composed  of  almost 
numberless  pieces,  and  forwarded  to  Mr.  Clay,  in  the  centre  of 
which,  inwrought  by  the  needle,  is  the  following  inscription  : — 

"TO  THE  HONORABLE  HENRY  CLAY, 

THE  ORATOR,  PATRIOT,  AND    PHILANTHROPIST, 

In  token  of  admiration  of  his  genius  and  his  virtues, 
Is  presented  this  piece  of  needlework,  by 
Mrs.  Ann  Warner, 
Executed  by  her  own  hands,  in  the  93d  year  of  her  age. 
Baltimore,  1845. 
"  While  lingers  still  my  setting  sun, 
And  life's  last  sands  in  silence  fall, 
Ere  death's  rude  hand  the  glass  shall  break, 
And  o'er  its  ruins  spread  the  pall — 

"  I  lift  the  voice  which  'mid  the  storm 
Of  war  our  early  patriot  blest, 
And  with  its  dying  accents  hail 
The  patriot  hero  of  the  west. 

"  Oh,  hallowed  be  thy  matchless  worth, 
By  a  whole  nation's  love  and  prayers ; 
And  thy  eventful  being  close. 
Lamented  by  a  nation's  tears." 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  the  records  of  a  meeting  of 
ladies,  in  Richmond,  Virginia,  held  December  9,  1844,  to  take 


452  THE    DISAPPOINTMENT. 

measures  for  the  erection  of  a  statue  of  Mr.  Clay,  at  the  expense 
of  the  ladies  of  Virginia  : — 

"  The  ladies  here  assembled,  desire  to  express,  in  the  enduring 
form  of  a  statue  of  Henry  Clay,  to  be  provided  by  voluntary  con- 
tributions by  the  ladies  of  Virginia,  and  erected  in  the  capital  of 
his  native  state,  their  respect  and  gratitude  for  the  distinguished 
public  services  of  that  eminent  citizen  and  patriot — their  sense  of 
his  private  worth — and  their  heartfelt  admiration  for  the  genius, 
eloquence,  and  wisdom,  with  which  at  all  times,  and  often  in  her 
hours  of  extremest  trial,  he  has  adorned,  enlightened,  and  guided 
the  councils  of  his  country.  And  believing  that  this  sentiment  is 
largely  shared  by  the  ladies  of  Virginia,  generally,  toward  the  man 
who,  beyond  all  her  living  sons,  has  by  his  life  and  character  shed 
a  lustre  on  the  state  of  his  and  their  birth,  and  acquired  for  him- 
self a  fame,  which  is  the  boast  of  his  own,  as  it  will  be  a  light  and 
a  lesson  to  succeeding  ages,  they  are  cordially  and  respectfully 
invited  to  unite  in  the  purposes,  and  to  become  members  of  the 
association  hereby  formed." 

Mrs.  Lucy  Barbour,  widow  of  Governor  Barbour,  was  placed 
at  the  head  of  this  association,  whose  grateful  and  patriotic  design 
is  as  sure  to  be  consummated,  as  the  hearts  of  ladies  are  true. 
This  proposal  originated  as  follows  : — 

"  Barboursville,  November  17,  1844. 
"  Mr.  Pleasants  :  I  was  not  a  little  surprised  by  my  two 
o-randdaughters,  who  reside  with  me,  suddenly  entering  my  cham- 
ber this  evening,  and  exclaiming :  '  Grandmother,  what  can  we  do 
for  Mr.  Clay  ?  Some  token  of  respect  ought  to  be  given  him  by 
the  whig  women  of  America,  and  we  have  been  devising  many 
plans,  but,  on  further  consideration,  none  of  them  pleased  us.' 
But  before  I  could  answer  the  interrogatory,  one  of  them  said  : 
'  Suppose  you  undertake  to  raise,  by  subscription,  a  sufficient 
sum  of  money  to  purchase  a  handsome  plate,  with  suitable  whig 
emblems  and  inscriptions  V  I  was  much  pleased  with  the  thought, 
and  our  views  expanding,  as  we  conversed  on  the  subject,  we  con- 
cluded at  first  to  extend  the  privilege  to  the  whole  stale  of  Vir- 
ginia ;  but  at  last  determined,  if  it  should  appear  practicable,  to 
embrace  the  whole  Union  in  our  scheme.  Ostentation  should  be 
avoided,  and  a  small  contribution  from  each  would  be  sufficient 
for  the  purpose,  and  enable  every  one,  however  humble,  to  aid  in 
its  accomplishment,  without  the  fear  of  being  overshadowed.  Now 
we  wish  you  to  adopt  the  scheme  as  your  own,  if  you  think  it 
feasible  ;  and  we  ask  the  aid  of  your  powerful  pen,  in  addressing 
the  whig  women  of  the  United  States  on  the  subject,  remembering 
the  admirable  injunction:  '  Whatsoever  ye  do,  do  it  quickly,  for 
the  artisan  knows  he  is  to  strike  while  the  metal  is  hot ;'  and  if  the 


THE    DISAPPOINTMENT.  453 

feeling  of  the  moment  passes  away,  it  will  be  difficult  to  arouse  it 
a  second  time. 

"  I  know  our  sex  are  thought  by  many,  unstable  as  water ;  but 
I  hope,  after  crowding  the  whig  festivals,  and  manifesting  so  much 
enthusiasm,  few  will  be  found  so  hollow-hearted  as  to  refuse  a 
small  sum  to  aid  so  good — I  had  almost  said,  so  holy — a  cause. 
We  leave  the  manner  of  raising  the  money  entirely  to  your  judg- 
ment ;  for  perhaps,  if  the  subscription  is  too  limited,  we  should 
not  be  able  to  raise  a  sufficient  sum. 

"  With  great  respect, 

"  Lucy  Barbour. 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  Richmond  Whig.'''' 

Concurrent  with  the  foregoing  letters,  and  the  same  in  charac- 
ter, the  many  hundred  whig  organizations  throughout  the  Union, 
expressed  their  feelings  on  the  same  occasion,  in  a  manner,  of 
which  the  following  are  specimens  : — 

^^  Resolved,  That  we,  the  whigs  of  Chatham  county  [Georgia], 
hereby  express  our  undiminished  confidence  in  the  purity  and 
patriotism  of  our  late  candidate  for  the  presidency,  Henry  Clay, 
of  Kentucky  ;  that  our  esteem  and  affection  cling  to  him  as  closely 
now,  when  rejected  by  an  ungrateful  people,  as  ever  in  the  proud- 
est days  of  his  prosperity  and  power ;  and  that,  regarding  him  as 
one  of  that  glorious  band  of  patriots,  whose  genius  and  virtues 
have  imparted  a  lustre  to  the  history  of  our  country,  we  look  with 
confidence  to  that  period,  when  malice,  which  always  aims  the 
arrows  of  calumny  at  the  noblest  heads,  shall  have  perished,  and 
a  grateful  posterity,  reversing  the  unjust  judgment  of  our  times, 
shall  enshrine  him  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen,  second  only  to 
Washington." 

By  the  whigs  of  New  Haven,  Connecticut,  on  the  11th  of 
November,  1844: — 

'■'■Resolved,  That,  for  our  candidate  for  president,  at  the  late 
election,  Henry  Clay,  we  cherish  the  most  deep  and  devoted 
attachment,  the  most  profound  respect  and  regard ;  that,  as  a 
patriot  and  statesman,  he  has  no  superior ;  that,  for  services  ren- 
dered to  his  country,  he  has  no  living  equal ;  that  his  election  to 
the  presidency,  though  it  would  have  gready  honored  and  bene- 
fited his  country,  would  not  have  added  a  single  ray  to  the  bright- 
ness of  his  fame." 

Addresses  from  whig  associations,  in  every  part  of  the  Union, 
of  this  class,  and  on  this  occasion,  might  be  extended  to  fill  a  vol- 
ume— all  equally  pertinent  and  eloquent,  giving  utterance  to  the 
same  sentiments,  pouring  out  their  sorrows  and  regrets  on  the  same 


454  THE    DISAPPOINTMENT. 

theme,  and  expressing  their  admiration  of  the  character  of  the  same 
man. 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  an  address  of  the  New  York 
Central  Clay  Committee,  dated  March  4,  1845,  when  Mr.  Clay 
should  have  been  installed  as  president,  having  received  the  major- 
ity of  the  LEGAL  vote  of  the  people  of  the  United  States.  It  was 
'enclosed  in  a  silver  case  of  elegant  workmanship,  and  forwarded 
to  Ashland  : — 

"  Standing  at  this  pecidiar  point  of  time,  in  the  void  present, 
between  a  melancholy  past  and  a  future  of  impenetrable  mystery 
and  unusual  gloom,  we  for  a  mouient  forget  our  dark  forebodings, 
and  our  renewed  toils  and  vigils,  in  the  feeling  of  what  we  yet  owe 
to  him  whose  name  was  our  strength,  whose  glory  was  our  boast, 
whose  splendid  services  to  his  country,  and  whose  stainless  public 
virtue,  were  our  just  claim  to  that  country's  confidence  in  him  as 
the  necessary  means  of  the  people's  security  and  happiness.  For, 
in  looking  around  among  the  wrecks  of  vain  hope,  we  find  that  all 
which  embodied  and  personified  our  principles,  which  gave  life 
and  reaUty  to  our  purpose,  is  left  to  us  unchanged  in  Henry 
Clay. 

"  And,  therefore,  to  you,  the  first  and  most  cherished  object  of 
our  political  devotion — whose  name  was  already  illustrious  in  the 
history  of  our  country  at  the  period  of  our  earliest  personal  remem- 
brances— to  you,  the  defender  of  the  Union  and  its  republican 
constitution,  the  chief  advocate  of  every  measure  of  beneficial  and 
protective  legislation,  the  unchanging  and  daundess  opposer  of 
tyranny  and  corruption,  our  ever-faithful  and  heroic  leader,  chief, 
and  friend — to  you,  with  a  sincerity  and  disinterestedness  now 
above  suspicion,  we  renew  our  vows  of  fidelity  in  this  peculiar 
moment ;  and  millions  all  over  the  Union  join  in  these  pledges. 

"  Our  relations  to  you  have  not  been  the  ordinary  obligations 
of  partisans  to  the  regular  nominee  of  an  authorized  convention. 
Had  you  never  been  a  candidate  for  the  chief  national  office,  you 
would  not  have  been  to  us  less  than  you  have  been,  and,  therefore, 
defeat  can  not  affect  these  relations  ;  for  you  are  still  to  us  all  that 
you  have  been  throughout  our  lives — still  great,  honorable,  just, 
pure,  patriotic,  and  wise — still  first  of  living  men,  and  '  first  in  our 
liearts' — still  '  right,'  and  willing  to  '  be  right,  rather  than  be  presi- 
dent'— still  greater  than  president  or  monarch,  for  you  are  still 
Henry  Clay. 

"  Though  the  people,  the  country,  and  the  world,  have  lost  so 
much,  we  rejoice  that  no  evil  has  befallen  you,  and  that  to  you 
remains  all  the  honor  which  could  have  been  yours  in  actual  tri- 
umph, free  from  the  weighty  responsibilities  which  would  have 
been  involved  in  the  possession  of  power.  Falsehood,  calumny, 
and  treachery,  have  done  their  work,  and  are  now  hushed  in  already 


THE    DISAPPOINTMENT.  455 

half-repentant  silence.  While  the  energies  and  traits  that  enobled 
you  are  still  yours,  the  hearts  of  your  innumerable,  devoted  friends 
are  also  yours,  beyond  the  reach  of  a  thousand  unfortunate  influ- 
ences which  might  have  arisen  from  the  peculiar  and  varied  obli- 
gations of  success. 

"  When  the  appalling  result  was  first  known  here,  many,  '  un- 
used to  the  melting  mood,'  shed  bitter  tears  for  their  country's 
dishonor,  and  groaned  in  sad  appreciation  of  the  dangers  and  woes 
impending  and  now  already  falling  on  the  nation.  Gray-haired 
age,  and  strong  manhood,  and  beauty,  and  youthful  hope — all  at- 
tested a  common  feeling  of  the  country's  misfortune  by  the  same 
touching  manifestations  of  sorrow.  It  was  many  a  '  child's  first 
grief:'  fathers  and  their  children  wept  together  the  death  of  patri- 
otic hopes  which  had  grown  and  strengthened  throughout  the  life- 
time of  both.  Even  mercenary  libellers  and  deceivers  forgot  their 
base  triumph  for  a  moment,  ashamed  of  their  victory  and  afraid  to 
boast,  and  stood  silent  in  the  first  full  consciousness  of  the  evil 
wrought  by  them  ;  and  they  vainly  sought  to  plead  with  the  grief 
thus  excited,  and  to  extenuate  their  own  shame. 

"  The  testimonials  of  your  worth,  and  of  a  people's  grateful  re- 
membrance, derived  from  these  impassioned  tokens  of  feeling,  are 
not  to  be  outweighed  by  the  vain  privileges  of  an  office  which  has 
been  disgraced  by  the  incumbency  of  some  of  the  worst  and  mean- 
est of  men.  The  treasures  of  an  empire,  and  the  dominion  of  a 
throne,  could  not  have  brought  to  their  possessor  honors  so  noble, 
offerings  so  precious,  or  devotion  so  faithful  and  enduring.  The 
statue  and  the  column  will  less  firmly  and  loftily  evince  a  people's 
sense  of  your  merits  and  achievements,  and  the  emblazoned  page 
of  history,  which  would  be  incomplete  without  the  commemoration 
of  your  patriotism,  wisdom,  and  eloquence,  will  but  imperfectly 
express  the  strength  of  devotion  with  which  you  inspired  the  wise 
and  intelligent  of  the  age.  The  monumental  marble  will  be  cold 
in  its  testimonies  of  your  greatness  and  renown  ;  but  our  glowing 
spirits  and  burning  words  shall  bear  you  better  witness.  The 
granite  shall  sooner  moulder,  than  these  living  memorials  shall  fail ; 
for  the  warm  hearts  in  which  our  blood  will  beat,  shall  swell  and 
thrill  in  other  ages  at  the  utterance  of  your  name,  with  instinctive 
emotions  of  gratitude  and  affection  derived  with  life  from  us,  and 
inherited  while  any  remain  worthy  of  America  and  liberty. 

"  The  history  of  our  country  and  of  your  life  will  warrant  these 
impressions  of  the  importance  and  grandeur  of  the  services  which 
you  have  rendered  to  the  nation,  of  the  good  which  you  have  actu- 
ally promoted  and  accomplished.  To  you,  to  your  labors  and 
eloquence,  to  your  counsels  and  influence,  extending  in  their  con- 
sistent and  beneficial  operation  through  more  than  forty  years,  we 
owe  the  enactment  and  maintenance  of  the  present  tariff  law  by 
SOUTHERN  votes.     To  you  we  owe  every  national  measure  of  re- 


456  THE    DISAPPOINTMENT. 

lief,  protection,  and  harmony,  whicii  %ce  have  been  permitted  to 
enjoy.  To  you  we  justly  ascribe  (he  merit  of  purposing  and  effect- 
ing that  great  prosperity  and  honorable  peace,  of  which  our  coun- 
try, for  a  time,  yet  retains  possession.  The  whole  land  is  bright, 
and  vivid,  and  vocal,  with  the  tokens  of  your  wise  policy  and  active 
patriotism  ;  and  the  movements  of  enterprise  in  art  and  traffic,  bear 
witness  of  your  foresight,  judgment,  and  practical  statesmanship. 
And  these,  with  our  national  honor,  peace,  union,  and  justice,  will 
long  endure  as  monuments  of  your  glory,  or  perish  only  in  realiza- 
tion of  your  prophetic  warnings.  The  land  which  your  toils  and 
aspirations  have  blessed — the  paradise  created  from  wilderness  and 
from  waste,  under  the  legislation  which  you  suggested,  directed, 
and  aided — the  very  streams  converted,  in  the  grand  movements 
of  art,  to  the  employment,  support,  and  happiness  of  millions — the 
splendid  fabrics  and  stately  structures  of  harmonious  wealth  and 
labor — the  winds  which  waft,  over  the  seas  whose  freedom  you 
vindicated,  to  every  shore,  the  products  of  our  protected  indus- 
try, under  the  flag  whose  rights  you  first  asserted  and  maintained — 
shall  all  attest  your  worth,  and  shall  prolong  your  unfading  glory 
beyond  their  being. 

"  Of  those,  who  in  classic  ages  have  thus  served  their  country 
and  honored  humanity,  and  have  fallen  in  the  protracted  struggle 
with  malignity,  treason,  folly,  and  tyranny,  it  has  been  well  said, 
in  terms  which  richly  express  our  sense  of  your  claims,  that — 

"  'They  fell,  devoted,  but  undying  ; 

The  very  gales  their  names  are  sighing ; 
The  silent  pillar,  lone  and  gray, 
Claims  kindred  with  their  sacred  clay. 
Their  spirits  wrap  the  dusky  mountain; 
Their  memory  sparkles  o'er  the  fountain ; 
The  meanest  rill,  the  mightiest  river, 
Roll  mingling  with  their  fame  for  ever.'  " 


REFLECTIONS.  457 


CHAPTER  XX. 

REFLECTIONS. 

Disappointment  of  the  Destiny  of  American  Political  Society. — A  Heresy. — The 
Eflect  and  Result  of  Mr.  Clay's  Labors  on  American  Society. — Recapitulation 
of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Protective  Policy.— The  Disturbing  Question.— What  has 
been  proved.— Restatement  of  the  New  Doctrine. — Mr.  Monroe's  Views. — What 
the  Country  has  lost  by  Opposition  to  Mr.  Clay's  American  System. — Recon- 
sideration of  the  Cause  of  General  Jackson's  Power  and  Influence. — Its  Disas- 
trous Effects.— The  Regal  Power.— The  Jackson  Regime  dissolved  in  1840.— 
Rally  of  its  Fragments  in  1844.- Their  Success.— What  they  propose  to  do. — 
Mr.  Clay  settled  the  Oregon  Question  Twenty  Years  ago. — A  Great  Question 
settled  by  a  "Southern  Planter."— Light  shining  on  the  South.— Mississippi 
Cotton  Planters  come  over  to  Protection. — Pennsylvania  on  the  Protective  Pol- 
icy.—Coadjutors  of  Mr.  Clay.— The  Public  Land  Policy.— Difference  between 
Foreign  and  Domestic  Debts. — The  Currency. — Fickleness  of  Legislation. — Who 
responsible  for  it. — The  Harrison  Administration. — Character  of  the  Tyler  Ad- 
ministration.— A  Glance  at  the  Future. 

The  history  gone  over  in  this  work  suggests  some  important 
and  practical  reflections,  among  which,  not  the  least — one,  indeed, 
of  momentous  character — is  the  great  fact,  as  developed  in  the 
current  narrative,  that,  for  a  series  of  years,  the  United  States  have 
been  chiefly  governed  by  the  regal  power  of  the  constitution, 
and  to  a  great  extent,  by  an  absolute  power.  This  will  be  a 
disappointment — a  disappointment  to  the  world,  not  less  than  to  the 
ordinary  feeling  of  the  country,  as  to  what  was  intended  in  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  government  and  institutions  of  the  United  States, 
and  as  to  what  is  probably  still  the  prevalent  desire  of  the  people. 

First,  it  will  be  a  disappointment  to  the  world.  It  has  been 
generally  understood,  down  to  this  time,  that  the  government  of 
the  United  States  is  democratic.  Such,  doubtless,  was  the  in- 
tention of  its  founders,  in  the  most  usual  and  most  enlarged  sense 
of  the  term,  to  wit,  a  popular,  as  contradistinguished  from  a  mon- 
archical government.  They  supposed  that  the  people  were  to  be 
the  GOVERNORS.  The  world  will  be  surprised  to  find,  that  the 
practical  operation  of  the  government  of  the  United  States,  under 
a  democratic  name  and  form,  has  not  only  been  tending  to  the  use 
and  toleration  of  regal  prerogatives,  but  that,  for  many  years,  its 


458  REFLECTIONS. 

policy  and  leading  measures  have  actually  been  controlled  by  regal 
sway,  not  unfrequently  absolute  and  arbitrary ;  and  that,  though 
notes  of  warning  have  been  sounded  by  faithful  sentinels  on  the 
watch-tower  of  freedom,  and  though  one  great  popular  movement 
was  made  in  1S40,  to  rescue  the  country,  it  was  itself  thwarted 
by  that  very  power,  which  it  aimed  to  restrict  and  bring  within 
constitutional  limits.  It  will  be  seen,  that  the  name  of  democracy 
is  more  easily  abused  than  was  supposed  possible,  and  that  a  con- 
stitutional monarchy  may  be  more  democratic  than  a  republic. 
It  will  be  said  with  triumph  by  British  monarchists,  that  the  British 
sovereign  can  not,  and  dare  not  veto  the  democratic  branch  of 
the  government.  The  sovereign  can  not  do  it,  because  the  purse- 
string  is  in  the  hands  of  the  people,  and  is  instantly  drawn  tight  by 
the  commoners  of  the  realm,  when  regal  power  is  stretched  beyond 
their  will;  and  for  this  and  other  reasons,  the  sovereign  dare  not 
do  it,  as  is  proved  from  the  fact,  that  it  has  not  been  done  for  more 
than  a  century.  As  has  been  seen  in  this  work.  General  Jackson, 
in  1S33,  seized  the  purse  of  the  nation,  and  took  it  into  his  own 
keeping — not,  indeed,  without  remonstrance — nevertheless,  he  was 
sustained  in  it.  That  such  a  transaction  should  be  tolerated,  in  a 
professedly-democratic  state,  is  a  just  subject  of  concern  among 
all  the  friends  of  true  democracy.  The  possession  and  control  of 
the  purse  by  the  people,  through  their  immediate  representatives, 
in  the  democratic  branch  of  the  government,  is  the  only  security 
of  freedom.  Such  is  the  practical  operation  of  the  Bridsh  con- 
stitution, and  this  is  the  constant,  the  effective,  and  the  only  check 
on  the  abuses  and  usurpations  of  regal  power. 

The  impunity  with  which  the  regal  power  in  this  and  other 
forms,  has  been  exerted  in  the  United  States,  will  astonish  man- 
kind, inasmuch  as  it  is  generally  supposed,  and  with  truth,  that  the 
government  of  the  United  States  was  set  up  for  the  very  purpose 
of  escaping  from  it.  It  will  also  be  said,  that  a  monarchy  regu- 
lated by  the  constitution,  is  better  than  a  mere  nominal  republic, 
the  head  of  which  transcends  the  constitution  at  his  will,  and  thus 
in  fact  becomes  an  absolute  monarch.  It  will  be  adduced  as  evi- 
dence, that  monarchies  are  necessary,  and  that  the  doctrine  of  re- 
publics is  an  impracticable  theory.  Absolutism  is  the  dread  of 
mankind  in  every  settled  state  of  society,  and  if  it  can  not  be 
avoided  in  a  republic,  men  will  fly  back  to  monarchy.  They  can 
not  always  be  deceived  by  a  name.  Freedom  and  repose  are  the 
two  great  objects   of  the  masses ;  and  when   they  discover,   that 


REFLECTIONS.  4-59 

both  are  wanting,  where  both  were  promised,  they  will  begin  to 
look  and  strive  to  better  their  condition. 

It  can  not  but  have  been  observed,  that  no  small  fraction  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States  have  already  shown  symptoms  of 
doubt  and  discouragement,  as  to  the  probable  and  ultimate  success 
of  democratic  institutions,  in  view  of  the  facts  embodied  in  this 
portion  of  the  history  of  the  country.  The  unyielding  firmness 
with  which  Mr.  Clay  has  held  on  to  the  democracy  with  which  he 
started  in  life,  the  labors  he  has  gone  through,  the  risks  he  has  en- 
countered, and  the  sacrifices  he  has  made,  to  defend  it,  against  the 
encroachments  of  regal  power,  have  been  fully  set  forth  in  this 
work,  and  can  hardly  fail  to  be  seen  and  appreciated.  That  he 
has  had  his  increasing  anxieties  on  this  subject,  is  often  betrayed, 
not  unfrequently  expressed,  in  his  speeches,  and  in  the  history  that 
has  been  given.  That  this  concern  has  been  more  profound,  and 
more  oppressive  to  his  feelings,  than  has  been  obvious,  may  be 
and  not  unHkely  is  true.  So  long  as  faith  in  American  democratic 
institutions  could  be  felt,  it  was  the  part  of  wisdom  and  patriotism 
to  evince  it,  even  in  the  midst  of  such  causes  of  disturbing  appre- 
hension. 

Among  the  heresies  applied  to  the  practical  operation  of  the 
government,  by  General  Jackson,  tending  to  monarchy,  was  the 
assumption,  that  the  executive  has  a  full  co-ordinate  power  and 
responsibility  in  legislation,  and  may  put  his  own  interpretation  on 
the  will  of  the  people  as  his  constituency,  in  deciding  upon  the 
laws  he  may  think  best  for  them.  .  On  this  principle,  the  executive 
may  assume  all  power  of  legislation  with  the  aid  of  the  veto. 
This  assumption  is  not  simply  a  paradox  in  a  democratic  state,  but 
an  absurdity  in  the  light  of  a  just  interpretation  of  the  constitution, 
which  manifestly  erected  the  two  branches  of  the  executive  and 
the  legislature  for  the  separate  functions  indicated  by  their  names. 
When  law-making  is  vested  in  the  executive,  or  usurped  by  it, 
that  is  a  pure  and  simple  monarchy,  and  utterly  inconsistent  with 
a  democratic  government.  When  it  is  used,  in  violation  of  con- 
stitutional authority,  it  is  naked  usurpation,  and  tends  to  despot- 
ism— may  be  despotism  in  the  very  first  stage — that,  however,  de- 
pends on  the  degree  and  the  intention.  It  is,  in  all  cases,  a  demo- 
lition of  the  only  opposing  barrier  to  despotism. 

It  is  manifest,  that  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  intended 
to  keep  each  branch  of  the  government  within  the  orbits  indicated 
by  their  respective  denominations — one  to  make,  one  to  execute. 


460  REFLECTIONS. 

and  the  other  to  judge  the  laws;  and  when  either  transcends  its 
sphere,  it  is  out  of  place,  and  must  necessarily  produce  derange- 
ment in  the  system.  In  a  democracy,  the  prerogatives  of  the  pop- 
ular branch  can  not  be  held  too  sacred,  or  guarded  with  too  much 
jealousy. 

That  the  people  of  the  United  States  will  be  disappointed,  when 
they  come  to  reflect  upon  the  operation  of  their  government,  in 
the  recent  stages  of  its  history,  is  extremely  probable,  if  not  cer- 
tain. They  have  hitherto  supposed  they  were  living  under  a 
democracy;  but  the  simple  and  naked  facts,  that  the  policy  and 
leading  measures  of  the  country,  for  the  best  part  of  an  age,  iiave 
been  controlled  by  the  will  of  one  man,  for  the  time  being,  and 
that  the  democratic  power  of  the  constitution  has  been  gradually 
yielding  to  the  forcible  encroachments  of  the  regal  power,  till  the 
latter  has  become  bold  by  impunity,  arrogant  in  its  pretensions,  and 
not  unfrequently  absolute  and  tyrannical,  can  not  long  be  con- 
cealed. 

The  public  history  of  Henry  Clay  involves  the  political  history 
of  the  country,  not  only  in  general,  but  especially  in  the  light  now 
under  consideration.  It  is  seen,  all  along,  that  when  the  regal 
power  of  the  constitution  began  to  shoot  from  its  orbit,  and  invade 
the  democratic  prerogatives,  Mr.  Clay  displayed  his  shield,  and 
never  laid  it  aside  ;  that  he  took  his  station  on  the  democratic 
platform ;  that  in  defence  of  the  popular  branch  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  in  vindication  of  its  constitutional  rights,  he  opposed 
these  regal  pretensions  with  vigilance,  constancy,  and  resolute  de- 
termination ;  that  his  notes  of  warning  never  ceased ;  and  that, 
before  he  retired  from  public  life,  instructed  by  the  experience  of 
the  past  and  the  omens  of  the  future,  he  proposed  a  plan  of  reform 
in  the  organic  and  fundamental  law,  to  restrict  and  limit  the  regal, 
and  to  recover  and  maintain  the  democratic  power  of  the  con- 
stitution. 

But,  important  as  this  resistance  of  unauthorized  regal  power 
may  seem,  and  in  fact  is,  it  is  yet  one  of  the  more  inconsiderable 
functions  discharged  by  Mr.  Clay  in  his  public  career  as  a  states- 
man, In  respect  to  his  actual  Influence  on  that  current  of  affairs 
which  constitutes  political  history.  Though  his  plan  of  public 
policy  has  been,  at  one  time  marred,  at  another  thwarted,  and  at 
another  interrupted  by  opposition,  it  will  yet  be  found,  that  his  per- 
sistance  from  the  beginning  in  one  uniform  course,  aided  by  his 
great  talents,  has  not  only  left  the  impress  of  his  mind  on  all  the 


REFLECTIONS.  461 

great  measures  of  the  country,  and  on  the  people,  but  that,  in 
spite  of  all  opposition,  he  has  succeeded  in  establishing,  with  a 
prospect  of  permanence,  in  its  most  substantial  parts,  that  Amer- 
ican SYSTEM,  which  he  originated  and  organized,  and  which 
comprehends  all  the  great,  with  all  minor  and  private  interests  of 
the  country.  Several  times  it  has  been  on  the  verge  of  destruc- 
tion; often  have  its  foundations  been  shaken  by  the  attacks  and 
partial  success  of  its  foes;  it  has  never  even  yet  been  allowed  a 
complete  and  fair  experiment;  but  the  untiring  perseverance  of  its 
author  has  given  the  nation  such  a  taste  of  its  blessings,  that,  in 
every  time  of  trouble,  when  it  is  put  back  and  depressed,  the  peo- 
ple hanker  and  call  out  for  it,  and  are  not  likely  to  be  satisfied 
without  it.  To  have  succeeded  in  making  such  a  great  and  lasting 
impression  on  the  American  mind,  under  such  disadvantages,  is 
sufficient  evidence  of  the  superior  powers  of  the  man,  and  of  his 
indomitable  moral  courage;  and  to  have  persevered  in  this  mighty 
task,  at  every  personal  risk,  and  with  constant  sacrifice  of  personal 
advantage,  evinces  a  patriotism  rarely  to  be  found. 

The  development,  and — so  far  as  it  has  been  achieved — the  es- 
tablishment, of  the  protective  policy,  is  the  great  triumph,  and  is 
destined  to  be  the  unfading  glory  of  Mr.  Clay's  public  life. 

It  has  been  seen,  in  the  progress  of  this  work,  that  the  great  ob- 
stacle, which  this  policy  has  had  to  contend  with,  is  the  common 
impression,  the  false  assumption,  and  the  alleged  fact,  that  protec- 
tive dudes  are  a  tax.  This  removed,  there  can  not  be  a  sol- 
itary objection  in  any  quarter;  and  it  is  singular,  that  so  large  a 
portion  of  the  public  mind  of  the  country,  should  have  remained 
so  long  under  this  delusion.  It  originated,  doubtless,  in  the  de- 
ceptive technicalities  of  political  science;  and  these  apparent  ad- 
missions, that  duties  are  parts  of  prices,  have  been  seized  upon, 
to  sustain  a  false  doctrine. 

That  protective  duties  can  not  possibly  be  a  tax  to  the  country, 
as  a  whole,  and  that  an  adequate  protective  system  is  a  positive 
relief  and  saving  to  the  country,  of  about  fifty  per  cent,  on  the  ag- 
gregate cost  of  the  articles  protected,  it  is  hoped,  has  been  made 
sufficiently  clear  in  this  work.  The  only  remaining  question, 
which  may  perhaps  for  a  while  embarrass  some  minds,  is,  whether 
any  parties  whatsoever — whether  any  sectional  or  local  interests, 
or  the  interests  of  any  classes  or  persons,  in  the  wide  community — 
are  injured  by  the  protective  policy;  and  whether  they  are  not  all 
necessarily  benefited,  in  some  degree,  though  not  perhaps  equally? 


462  REFLECTIONS. 

It  may  with  confidence  be  affirmed,  that  no  party  in  the  country, 
comprehensive  or  single,  embracing  sectional  or  private  interests, 
can  be  injured,  and  that  each  and  all  must  necessarily  be  benefited. 
Such  an  immense  saving  to  the  country,  as  is  secured  by  an  ade- 
quate protective  system,  is  constantly  distributing  its  round  of  ben- 
efits to  all  parties  in  the  community,  in  innumerable  forms  and 
ways.  It  has  been  shown,  that  the  aggregate  of  losses  to  the 
country,  since  the  adoption  of  the  constitution,  for  want  of  an  ad- 
equate protective  system,  can  not  be  less  than  the  largest  fraction, 
or  more  than  half,  of  a  billion  of  dollars,  weighed  in  the  scales! 
What  could  not  the  country  have  accomplished,  with  half  a  billion 
of  money,  more  than  it  has  had,  distributed  through  this  period, 
and  applied  to  the  most  productive  purposes !  One  hundred  mil- 
lions of  cash  is  about  enough  for  the  uses  of  the  country  at  any 
time,  in  existing  circumstances.  What  would  not  five  times  this 
sum,  to  which  the  country  was  justly  entitled,  and  which  it  has 
lost  for  ever,  have  produced  in  the  progress  of  half  a  century,  dis- 
tributed and  used  by  fractions  in  the  successive  stages  of  this  pe- 
riod, multiplying  its  products  in  manifold  forms,  in  the  practical 
concerns  of  life,  as  all  active  capital  does?  It  is  scarcely  possible 
to  estimate  what  the  country  would  have  been,  or  what  it  may  yet 
be,  under  an  adequate  protective  system.  None  of  the  commer- 
cial revulsions,  with  their  immense  ruin,  which  the  country  has  so 
often  experienced,  would  have  occurred,  for  that  would  have  been 
impossible;  nor,  on  the  same  condition,  would  they  ever  again  oc- 
cur, as,  for  the  same  reason,  it  would  be  impossible.  Neither  a 
private  person,  nor  a  nation,  with  a  steady  income,  can  ever  fail; 
and  the  income  of  a  man,  or  a  nation,  depends  alike  on  the  pru- 
dence and  foresight  with  which  the  interests  of  the  parties  are 
watched  and  protected. 

But  the  disturbing  question,  whether  the  benefits  of  the  protec- 
tive policy  are  equally  distributed,  will  still  be  agitated.  If  all  are 
benefited,  that  is  enough  for  its  vindication.  No  state  of  society 
will  bring  equal  benefits  to  all,  even  when  it  opens  to  all  equal 
chances ;  because  all  are  not  equally  industrious  and  frugal.  "  Mo- 
nopoly" has  been  the  watchword  of  demagogues,  in  their  denun- 
ciations of  the  policy  of  protection.  But  every  practical  man 
knows,  that  if  great  profits  in  any  specific  business,  open  for  com- 
petition, are  realized  at  a  given  time,  capital  immediately  rushes 
in,  and  in  a  short  time,  reduces  those  profits  to  a  reasonable  stan- 
dard.    This  is  the  invariable  consequence  of  such  a  fact.     Nor, 


REFLECTIONS.  463 

In  the  meantime,  is  any  party  injured — certainly  not  laborers  and 
operatives,  who,  by  this  means,  are  more  sure  of  employment  and 
high  wages.     The  reason  of  large  profits  and  large  dividends,  is 
not  usually,  scarcely  ever,  the  result  of  high   prices  of  the  prod- 
ucts, in  the   case  of  manufactures ;    but  prices  will  naturally  be 
reduced,  as  soon  as  new  investments  of  capital,  thus  invited,  shall 
augment  the  supply,  by  increasing  competition.     Large  profits  in 
any  specific  business,  under  protection,   are  necessarily  transient, 
as  competition  will  soon  reduce  them;  and  at  the  same  time  reduce 
the  prices  of  the  products.     So  long  as  prices  are  cheapened  by 
protection,  nobody  has  a  right  to  complain  of  the  profits  made  by 
producers.     They  can  themselves  go  into  the  business,  and  share 
the  profits,  if  they  please;  or,  if  they  have  nothing  but  the  capital 
of  labor  to  invest,  these  profits  are  sure  to  give  it  employment  and 
reward.     Labor  capital,  under  the  American  manufacturing  sys- 
tem, can  easily  clear  an  average  profit  of  fifty  per  cent,  on  wages 
as  the  investment,  which  is  many  times  more  than  the  usual  profits 
of  moneyed  capital  in  the  best  investments.     Surely,  the  laborer 
will  not  complain,  that  he  was  not  born  rich,  and  require  those  who 
happen  to  be  rich,  or  who  have  acquired  riches  by  industry  and 
frugality,  to  divide  with   him,  so  long  as  the  capital  of  the  rich 
gives  him  wages,  on  which  he  can  save  half,  and  himself  become 
rich.     The  prices  of  labor  in  the  manufacturing  and   mechanic 
arts  are  usually  higher  than  in  other  callings,  and  in  that  way  sus- 
tain and  raise  the  prices  of  all  other  kinds  of  labor.     It  is  impos- 
sible that  labor  should  not  be  benefited  by  the  protective  policy,  so 
long  as  the  articles  protected  and  necessary  to  the  subsistence  and 
comfort  of  laborers,  are  not  raised,  but  cheapened.     It  might  be 
benefited,  even  if  the  articles  consumed  by  laborers  were  raised, 
if  their  wages  are  raised  in  the  same  proportion.     But  it  is  unne- 
cessary to  argue  this  point,  as  it  has  been  proved,  that  the  prices 
of  protected  articles,  when  protection  is  not  prohibitory,  are  cheap- 
ened by  a  wider  range  of  competition,  or  which  is  the  same  thing, 
by  the  law  of  supply  and  demand.     Even  when  protection  amounts 
to  prohibition,  home  competition,  after  a  short  season,  brings  the 
prices  far  below  what  is  usually  demanded  by  foreign  factors  having 
the  monopoly.     Admitting  that,  in  some  few  instances,  and  in  a 
small  degree,  the  prices  of  protected  articles  may  be  enhanced  by 
protection — as  is  perhaps  the  fact,  though. even  that  may  be  ques- 
tioned— nevertheless,  it  can  easily  be  shown,  and  is  a  fair  deduc- 
tion from  the  facts  and  reasonings  of  this  work,  that  no  party  or 


464  REFLECTIONS. 

person  can  be  found  in  the  United  States,  having  interests  vested 
in  caj)ital  or  labor,  who  is  not,  on  the  whole,  essentially  and  greatly 
benefited  by  a  protective  system,  and  whose  chances  of  acquiring 
wealth,  and  realizing  happiness,  are  not  greatly  augmented  thereby; 
and  none  are  so  much  benefited  as  the  laboring  classes;  and  if  each 
several  party  is  benefited,  how  much  more  the  whole  community? 
The  great  opposition   to  the   protective  policy  in   the  United 
States,  has  arisen  from  the  southern  planting  interest.     But  Mr. 
Clay,  "a  Southern  Planter,"  and  many  others,   have  proved  con- 
clusively, that  this  policy  is  equally  important  to   the  south  as  to 
the  north.     "A  Southern  Planter"  has  apparently  shown,  that  cot- 
Ion  can  never  be  brought  around   the  cape  of  Good  Hope,   so 
cheap  as  can  be  afforded  by  the  American  planter;  it  is  proved  by 
Mr.  Clay,  is  indeed  self-evident,  that  two  markets  are  better  than 
one;  it  was  also  shown  by  Mr.  Clay  in  1832,  that  not  more  than 
five  hundredths  of  the  raw  American  cotton,  purchased  by  British 
manufacturers,   returns  to  the   United  States,   in  a  manufactured 
form,  which   proportion    must  have   been   constantly  diminishing 
since  that  time  ;  it  is  proved,  that  the   British  manufacturers  can 
not  possibly  do  without  this  ninety-five  hundredths,  or  more,  to 
supply  their  market  in  other  parts  of  the  world  ;  it  is  established, 
that  the  American  cotton-factories  now  use  up  about  one  fourth  of 
the  American  product  of  raw  cotton,  and  that  this  consumption  is 
constantly  increasing  in  amount;  it  is  already  settled,  that  the  com- 
petition of  American  manufacturers  of  cotton,  with  British  manu- 
facturers', in  the  markets  of  the  world,  has  compelled  the  British 
parliament  to  abolish  duties  on  raw  cotton,  to  protect  British  man- 
ufacturers; all  which  shows,  first,  that  British  manufacturers  can 
not  subsist  without  American   cotton ;  and  next,  that  the  demand 
for  the  raw  material  has  been  greatly  enhanced,  and  the  prices  sus- 
tained, by  the  American  protective  policy.      What,  then,  becomes 
of  the  argument  of  the  southern  opponents  of  the  protective  sys- 
tem?    It  is  annihilated.     No  part  of  the  country  is  more  inter- 
ested  in  the  protective  policy,  than  they  are — and  no  part  is  so 
much  benefited  by  it.     They  pay  a  greater  price  for  nothing,  and 
buy  everything  which   they  consume   cheaper.     They  have   two 
markets  for  one  open  to  their  own  products,  and  get  a  better  price 
for  all  they  have  to  sell.     England,  can  not  subsist  a  day  without 
their  raw  material,   and  by  the  American  protective  system,  the 
demand  for  it  is  constantly  widening  and  increasing. 

The  advantages  and  profit  of  the  system,  to  all  parties,  and  to 


REFLECTIONS.  465 

the  whole  country,  being  decided,  the  most  potent  of  all  consider- 
ations demanding  it,  is  that  which  has  been  stated  and  explained  in 
chapter  xii.  of  this  volume,  regarding  the  relative  position  of  Eu- 
ropean capital  and  labor,  as  producing  powers,  to  American  capi- 
tal and  labor  acting  in  the  same  capacity,  in  respect  to  the  influ- 
ence which  these  two  agencies  have  on  the  rights  of  man  and  po- 
litical freedom  throughout  the  world.  It  has  been  seen,  that  the 
united  cost  of  European  capital  and  labor,  the  former  at  67  and 
the  latter  at  33,  is  not  more  than  half  the  united  cost  of  American 
capital  and  labor  at  100  each.  This,  as  near  as  can  be  ascer- 
tained, is  the  difference  between  the  two.  Hence  3  per  cent,  for 
the  use  of  European  capital,  is  as  good  as  6  per  cent,  for  the  use 
of  American.  Some,  at  first  sight,  might  think  this  is  absurd.  It 
is  nevertheless  true.  Labor  is  the  producer  of  all  wealth;  and 
where  it  costs  33,  as  in  Europe,  it  is  obvious,' that  its  avails  can 
be  afforded  at  a  less  price  than  when  it  costs  1 00,  as  in  the  United 
States. 

If  it  should  be  said,  this  proves  that  Americans  can  obtain  the 
products  of  manufacture  from  Europe  cheaper  than  at  home,  it  is 
not  true,  because,  as  has  been  shown  in  this  work,  all  those  prod- 
ucts, before  exportation,  are  taxed  by  European  governments,  in 
various  forms,  up  to  an  average  of  fifty  per  cent,  on  the  cost  to 
the  American  consumer,  which  he  has  to  pay — all  which  is  saved 
by  home  manufacture,  and  distributed  among  all  classes — and  what 
is  most  important,  it  is  saved  to  the  country.  This  is  the  reason 
why  the  prices  of  labor  in  the  United  States  are  sustained,  and 
why  money  capital  is  worth  so  much  more,  at  the  same  time  that 
the  prices  of  protected  articles  are  kept  down.  The  country  and 
the  people  are  saved  from  a  tax  of  fifty  per  cent.,  that  would  other- 
wise be  imposed  by  foreign  governments,  and  from  being  impover- 
ished by  drafts  on  their  money  by  this  cause.  This  saving  is  so 
much  more  capital  at  home,  that  employs  labor,  and  enters  into  all 
the  business  departments  of  life. 

If  it  should  be  said,  that,  since  American  capital  is  worth  so 
much  more  than  European  capital,  the  latter  ought  to  come  and 
would  come  here  for  employment,  the  answer  is,  first,  that  money 
never  flows  into  a  quarter  whence  money  is  due ;  next,  it  does 
not  naturally  go  where  credit  is  bad,  and  where  repudiation 
is  practised;  thirdly,  it  is  well  known,  that  all  European  capital- 
ists, when  they  felt  safe,  have  always  sought  American  investments; 
and  the  reason  is,  because  money  is  worth  more  in  America. 

Vol.  II.— 30 


466  REFLECTIONS. 

It  has  been  suggested,  that  the  reason  of  this  difference 
between  the  prices  of  European  capital  and  labor,  and  Amer- 
ican capital  and  labor,  is  to  be  found  in  the  different  states 
of  political  society  in  these  two  quarters — one  being  despotic 
and  the  other  free,  and  that  the  high  value  of  American  capital 
and  labor  is  indissolubly  connected  with  freedom.  This  is  the 
fact  which  imparts  momentous  importance  to  the  protective  pol- 
icy in  the  United  States,  because  it  is  one  and  the  same  thing 
as  protection  to  freedom.  Break  down  the  protective  system,  and 
down  comes  the  value  of  every  species  of  property,  down  the  high 
value  of  money,  down  the  wages  of  labor,  and  up  the  prices  of  all 
the  articles  which,  having  been,  but  being  no  longer  protected,  will 
be  supplied  by  the  cheap  labor,  but  burdened  with  the  high  taxes 
of  Europe  and  other  foreign  parts.  The  money  of  the  country 
will  go  off  to  pay  for  them,  the  spirits  of  the  people  will  be  bro- 
ken, and  reduced  to  an  humiliation  fit  only  for  slavery — it  will 
BE  SLAVERY.  Americans  can  not  work  at  the  low  wages  of  Eu- 
rope, and  retain  their  freedom.  It  is  impossible.  But  without 
the  protective  system,  wages  would  inevhably  be  reduced  to  that 
standard — as  certainly  as  water  seeks  a  level.  An  American  sys- 
tem and  American  freedom  are  bound  together,  and  can  not  be 
divorced.     If  the  former  falls,  the  latter  falls  with  it. 

This  doctrine  of  political  economy,  regarding  the  relations  and 
indissoluble  connexion  between  the  protective  policy  and  freedom, 
as  advanced  in  this  work,  asserts  no  other  pretension  than  the  slight 
merit,  if  it  be  even  so  much  as  that,  of  an  endeavor  to  render  pal- 
pable an  indistinct  notion  which  has  long  existed  in  the  American 
mind,  and  which  has  been  frequently  shadowed  forth  by  American 
politicians,  economists,  and  statesmen.  The  author  was  no  doubt 
indebted  to  these  hints  for  his. own  conceptions  on  the  subject,  and 
for  the  result  at  w^hich  he  has  arrived.  The  experience  of  the 
United  States  could  not  have  failed  to  give  birth  to  this  doctrine. 
It  is  distinctly  presented,  in  a  more  palpable  form,  perhaps,  than 
will  be  found  anywhere  else,  in  an  extract  from  one  of  President 
Monroe's  messages,  chapter  xi.,  page  292,  of  this  volume,  which 
reads  as  follows: — 

"  Satisfied  am  I,  whatever  may  be  the  abstract  doctrine  in  favor 
of  unrestricted  commerce  [free  trade] ,  prozj/cZe J  all  nations  would 
concur  in  it,  and  it  was  not  liable  to  be  interrupted  by  war — which 
has  never  occurred,  and  can  not  be  expected — that  there  are  other 
strong  reasons  applicable  to  our  situation  and  relations  with  other 


REFLECTIONS.  467 

countries,  which  impose  on  us  the  obligation  to  cherish  and  sustain 
our  manufactures." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  author  did  not  observe  this  coincidence 
of  opinion,  in  this  particular  instance,  till  he  had  written  all  that  he 
has  presented  on  the  subject.  But  it  will  have  been  seen,  that  he 
does  not  claim  to  be  the  originator  of  this  idea,  but  that  he  takes 
it  as  he  finds  it  in  the  common  mind.  The  pride  of  originating 
a  new  and  valuable  idea,  could  not  be  more  gratifying  to  him  than 
to  be  found  in  good  company  at  the  end  of  an  independent  course 
of  thinking.  He  is  pleased  to  observe,  that  Mr.  Monroe  has  ex- 
pressed himself  in  almost  precisely  the  same  terms.  He  clearly 
revealed  the  doctrine  in  the  shape  of  a  hint — of  an  incidental  re- 
mark. It  will  be  noticed,  that  he  expresses  himself  with  great 
confidence — that  he  seems  to  have  had  a  deep  and  profound  con- 
viction of  the  truth  thus  incidentally  announced.  "  Satisfied  I 
am,"  &c.  It  is  not  easy  to  present  the  doctrine  more  fully,  or  in 
a  more  naked  form,  than  Mr.  Monroe  has  done  in  this  single  sen- 
tence. It  is  imperfect  only  in  not  defining  the  relations  of  things 
which  illustrate  the  doctrine.  That  is  rather  the  task  of  a  political 
economist,  than  of  a  statesman  in  an  official  paper. 

It  is  clear,  first,  that  Mr.  Monroe  throws  to  the  winds,  "  the  ab- 
stract doctrine"  of  free  trade,  "though  all  nations  would  concur  in 
it,"  as  inapplicable  to  the  United  States.  Next,  he  is  "  satisfied, 
that  there  are  othe?'  strong  reasons  applicable  to  our  situation  and 
relations  with  other  countries,  which  impose  on  us,"  &c.  Mr. 
Monroe  was  manifestly  "  satisfied,"  as  he  expresses  himself,  that 
there  was  something  peculiar  "  in  our  situation  and  relations  with 
other  countries,"  which  ought  to  keep  the  United  States  out  of 
the  pale  of  a  fraternity  of  all  nations,  associated  on  the  platform 
of  free  trade,  even  if  such  a  compact  could  be  effected — which, 
however,  he  very  justly  represents  as  impracticable.  It  only  re- 
mains to  determine  what  that  peculiarity  is.  It  is  several  times 
presented  in  this  work,  in  different  forms,  as  consisting  in  the  rela- 
tion of  labor  to  power.  Labor  in  Europe,  and  in  many  other  parts, 
is  the  mere  agent  of  power  ;  in  the  United  States,  and  wherever 
freedom  reigns,  labor  and  power  are  identical.  It  is  attempted  to 
be  shown  in  this  work,  that,  unless  American  labor  is  continuously, 
under  all  circumstances,  and  in  any  event,  protected  against  the 
pauper  labor  of  Europe  and  other  parts  of  the  world,  where  it  is 
not  free,  but  employed  as  the  agent  of  power,  American  freedom 


468  REFLECTIONS. 

will  be  lost — that  protection  and  freedom  are  bound  together,  and 
can  not  be  separated. 

The  peculiarity,  therefore,  that  is  sought  for,  is  nothing  more  or 
less  than  the  right  and  duty  of  American  labor  to  protect  itself 
against  that  power  in  Europe  or  anywhere  else,  which  employs 
labor  as  an  agent — including  as  a  part  of  this  peculiarity,  the  rela- 
tive situation  of  these  parties.  The  two  parties  in  conflict,  and 
which  must  for  ever  be  in  conflict,  so  long  as  freedom  is  in  one 
place  and  slavery  in  another,  are  the  labor  of  American  freemen, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  European  and  other  powers,  on  the  other, 
which  have  reduced  labor  to  a  state  of  bondage,  and  use  it  as  an 
agent  of  their  will.  The  moment  that  free  trade  is  opened  between 
these  parties,  the  rights  of  American  labor  will  be  invaded,  and 
will  inevitably  fall  into  the  power  of  those  who,  in  other  parts  of 
the  world,  hold  labor  in  a  state  of  bondage  ;  and  the  end  of  the 
contest  must  be,  that  American  labor  will  be  reduced  to  the  same 
state — that  is,  a  condition  of  bare  subsistence,  and  that  not  very  tol- 
erable. It  is  impossible,  in  the  nature  of  commercial  transactions, 
that  labor  which  realizes  a  fair  compensation — it  is  never  fair  when 
there  is  no  alternative  left — should  come  into  competition  on  the 
basis  of  free  trade,  with  forced  labor,  which  has  no  alternative,  on 
wages  differing  as  widely  as  100  for  the  former  and  33  for  the 
latter,  without  falling  a  victim  to  those  who  retain  the  latter  in  such 
a  forced  service.  Hence  the  necessity  of  protection  for  ever  for 
freedom  against  despotism.  The  essence  of  political  freedom  is 
that  state  of  society  which  secures  to  the  industrious  and  laboring 
classes  a  fair  reward  for  their  toil.  It  is  not  usually  the  rich  in 
any  country  that  are  oppressed,  or  that  ask  for  a  greater  amount 
of  freedom.     It  is  the  toiling  millions. 

It  is  remarkable,  that  a  system  of  policy  opposed  to  protection, 
so  utterly  subversive  of  freedom — of  the  rights  of  the  masses — 
should  have  gained  such  favor  in  the  United  States,  under  the  au- 
thority of  one  man  (General  Jackson),  and  that  the  policy  advo- 
cated by  Mr.  Clay,  which  alone  secures  the  rights  of  labor,  should 
have  had  to  encounter  such  adverse  storms,  should  have  been 
forced  through  a  thousand  perils,  and  nearly  wrecked,  by  this  op- 
posing influence  !  The  gallant  ship,  however,  still  rides  the  waves, 
though  it  can  not  be  said,  there  are  no  breakers  ahead. 

If  the  system  of  protection  advocated  by  Mr.  Clay,  had  been 
early  established,  and  never  disturbed,  it  is  impossible  to  estimate 


REFLECTIONS.  469 

the  wealth  and  happiness  it  would  have  produced  in  the  United 
States  and  among  all  industrious  and  frugal  classes.  Allowing  that 
the  whole  country  has  lost  a  billion  of  money  in  fifty  years  for 
want  of  it — this,  probably,  is  not  a  high  statement,  all  things  con- 
sidered— it  is  scarcely  a  beginning  in  the  reckoning  of  the  entire 
loss.  To  this  must  be  added  the  producing  power  of  such  a  cap- 
italj  in  the  hands  of  an  enterprising  people,  distributed  among 
them,  and  profitably  employed,  along  the  line  of  half  a  century. 
The  reproduction  can  not  be  counted.  Then  come  the  negative 
considerations,  in  the  effects  of  embarrassments  for  want  of  such 
capital,  and  in  the  stupendous  results  of  frequent  periods  of  gen- 
eral bankruptcy.  Who  can  estimate  this  part  of  the  account? 
As  poverty  cripples  a  man,  so  does  it  cripple  a  nation.  It  has 
been  shown  in  this  work,  that,  under  an  adequate  and  uniform 
protective  system,  well  sustained,  it  is  impossible  that  a  time  of 
general  commercial  distress  and  bankruptcy  should  ever  occur — 
equally  impossible,  as  that  a  private  individual,  with  an  annual  in- 
come always  exceeding  his  expenditures,  should  become  insolvent, 
and  for  the  same  reason.  What,  then,  would  not  the  United  States 
have  been  in  wealth  and  greatness,  and  what  would  not  the  people 
have  been  in  prosperity  and  happiness,  under  such  a  system,  with- 
out interruption  for  fifty  years  past? 

These  reflections,  well  founded  as  they  doubtless  are,  suggest, 
with  great  force,  the  tremendous  responsibility  of  those  who  have 
stood  in  the  way  of  this  prosperity,  who  have  fought  against  and 
obstructed  this  system,  who  have  prevented  its  establishment,  who 
have  broken  it  down  when  it  has  been  partly  set  up,  who  have 
brought  distress  on  a  great  nation,  who  have  done  everything  they 
could  to  make  that  distress  perpetual,  and  who  still  aim,  by  such 
means,  to  destroy  the  well-being  of  so  great  a  commonwealth ! 

In  regard  to  the  critical  condition  of  the  country  in  1833,  from 
which  it  was  rescued  by  the  passage  of  Mr.  Clay's  compromise 
bill,  there  is  an  important  item  of  evidence,  omitted  in  the  proper 
place,  showing  how  narrow  was  the  escape  from  civil  war,  or  from 
troubles  of  the  most  serious  kind,  which  were  averted  by  Mr. 
Clay's  measure.  All,  it  seems,  depended  on  the  firmness  of  the 
Hon.  Hugh  Lawson  White,  the  president  of  the  senate  pro  tem- 
pore, who  refused  to  yield  to  the  dictation  of  General  Jackson,  in 
the  appointment  of  the  committee  on  Mr.  Clay's  bill.  The  im- 
propriety of  this  interference  with  the  business  and  duties  of 
another  branch  of  the  government,   will  be  sufficiendy  obvious  ; 


470  REFLECTIONS. 

but  it  was  nothing  strange  under  that  regime.     The  facts  are  dis- 
closed in  the  note  below.* 

The  main  cause  of  General  Jackson's  power  and  influence,  as 
suggested  in  this  work,  if  true,  is  a  feature  of  history  of  no  small 
importance.  As  the  result  of  the  success  of  the  conspiracy  car- 
ried on  against  Mr.  Clay,  to  wit,  a  general  impression  and  belief 
among  the  people  of  the  United  States,  that  General  Jackson  was 
wronged,  it  is  j^roved,  that  it  was  not  vice  in  the  people,  but  vice 
in  those  who  deceived  them.  The  people  were  actuated  by  the 
most  generous  and  praiseworthy  feelings.  That  this  power  and 
influence  could  not  have  been  the  sole  effect  of  military  fame  and 
force  of  personal  character,  has  been  shown  from  the  fact,  that 
these  two  causes  had  been  operating  for  ten  years  after  the  victory 
of  New  Orleans,  without  any  remarkable  and  decided  effect — notb- 

•  TESTIMONY   OF  THE    HON.    HUGH   LAWSON   WHITE,   BEFOKE  A    COMMITTEE   OF   THE 
HOUSE    OF    REPRESENTATIVES,  FEB.    13,    1837,    ON    OATH — (EXTRACT). 

"  Mr.  Clay  introduced  what  is  commonly  called  the  Compromise  bill,  and  opon 
its  second  reading  it  had  been  referred  to  a  select  committee,  composed  of  seven 
members.  This  committee  it  was  my  duty  as  presiding  officer"  (of  the  senate) 
"  to  appoint.  Before  the  members  of  it  were  named,  I  received  a  note  from  the 
president,  requesting  me  to  go  to  his  house,  as  he  wished  to  see  me.  I  returned 
the  answer  that  while  the  senate  was  in  session  it  was  out  of  my  power  to  go  ;  but 
that,  as  soon  as  it  adjourned,  I  would  call  on  him.  I  felt  the  high  responsibility 
which  rested  on  me  in  appointing  the  committee.  The  fate  of  the  bill,  in  a  great 
measure,  depended  on  it ;  and  if  the  bill  failed,  we  would  probably  be  involved  in 
a  most  painful  conflict.  I  endeavored  to  make  the  best  selection  I  could,  by  taking 
some  tariff  men,  some  anti-tariff,  one  nullifier,  and  Mr.  Clay  himself — hoping, 
that,  if  a  majority  of  a  committee,  in  which  all  interests  and  views  were  repre- 
sented, could  agree  on  anything,  it  was  likely  it  would  pass.  Taking  these  princi- 
ples as  my  guide,  I  wrote  down  the  names  of  seven  members,  Mr.  Clayton,  of 
Delaware,  being  one;  and  immediately  before  we  adjourned,  handed  the  names  to 
the  secretary,  with  directions  to  put  them  on  the  journal,  and  in  the  course  of  the 
evening  waited  on  the  president.  Soon  after  we  met,  he  mentioned,  that  he  wish- 
ed to  see  me  on  the  subject  of  appointing  a  committee  on  Mr.  Clay's  bill,  to  ask 
that  Mr.  Clayton  might  not  be  put  on  it,  as  he  was  hostile  to  the  administration, 
and  unfriendly  to  Mr.  McLane"  (secretary  of  the  treasury,  who  had  given  the 
project  of  a  bill,  commonly  called  "  Verplanck's  bill").  "  He  feared  he  would  use  his 
endeavor  to  have  a  preference  given  to  Mr.  Clay's  bill  over  that  of  the  secretarj'  of 
the  treasury,  or  words  to  that  effect.  I  observed  in  answer,  that  it  would  always 
give  me  pleasure  to  conform  to  the  wishes  of  my  political  friends,  whenever  I 
could  do  so  with  propriety ;  but  that  the  treasury  bill  had  been  so  altered  and 
mangled,  and  that,  as  I  understood,  in  a  good  degree  by  the  votes  of  his  own 
party,  that  it  luid  but  few  friends  ;  that  we  seemed  to  be  on  the  eve  of  a  civil  war, 
and  tliat  for  the  sake  of  averting  such  a  calamity,  I  would  further  all  in  my  power 
any  measure,  come  from  whom  it  might,  which  would  give  peace  to  the  country, 
and  that  any  bill,  liaving  that  for  its  object,  was  esteemed  by  me  a  measure  above 
party,  and  any  man  who  was  the  author  of  it,  was  welcome  to  all  the  credit  he 
could  gain  by  it.  But,  at  all  events,  it  was  too  late  to  talk  on  the  subject,  as  I  had 
handed  the  names  of  the  committee  to  the  secretary  before  we  adjourned  ;  and 
that,  as  I  had  a  very  high  opinion  of  Mr.  Clayton's  talents  and  liberal  feelings,  I 
had  put  Jiim  on  the  committee,  without  knowing  he  was  personally  unkind  to  the 
secretary  of  the  treasury.  He  (the  president)  then  asked  me,  if  I  could  not  see 
the  secretary  of  the  senate  that  evening,  and  substitute  some  other  name  for  Mr. 
Clayton's,  before  the  journal  was  made  up.  I  told  him  I  could  not — in  my  judg- 
ment it  would  be  wrong.     And  there  the  interview  teiminated." 


REFLECTIONS.  471 

ing  more  than  may  generously  be  supposed  to  have  been  due  to 
merit.  The  presidential  campaign  of  1824 — General  Jackson 
being  in  the  field  as  a  candidate — passed  over  without  any  of  that 
popular  enthusiasm  in  his  favor  which  was  manifested  in  the  cam- 
paigns of  1828  and  1832.  It  was  not  till  the  people  believed  that 
General  Jackson  had  been  wronged  in  being  rejected  by  the  house 
of  representatives  in  1825 — and  wronged  as  alleged  by  "bargain 
and  intrigue" — that  they  came  to  his  support  with  such  overwhelm- 
ing power.  And  they  continued  to  support  him  under  the  same 
impression,  to  the  end  of  his  administration  of  eight  years.  This 
belief  was  incorporated  with  and  controlled  the  machinery  of  the 
general  mind.  It  has  never  been  but  very  partially,  and  never 
will  be  thoroughly,  eradicated  from  the  mind  of  the  generation 
which  so  deeply  imbibed  the  feeling,  and  for  so  many  years  acted 
under  its  influence.  The  conspiracy  was  completely  successful, 
and  the  people  acted  all  the  while  from  the  most  praiseworthy 
motives. 

This  presents  the  history  of  the  country,  for  the  last  twenty 
years,  in  a  very  different  light  from  that  in  which  it  has  generally 
stood.  So  far  as  that  it  proves,  that  the  feelings  of  a  free  people 
are  susceptible  of  being  led  astray,  and  of  being  practised  upon  to 
their  injury,  to  the  peril  of  freedom  itself,  it  may  be  too  true,  not 
to  be  a  just  subject  of  concern.  But  it  may  be  hoped,  that  the 
instances  in  future  history  will  be  rare,  when  such  a  stupendous 
conspiracy  will  find  means  of  being  carried  out  with  success.  The 
virtue  of  the  people,  at  least,  in  the  midst  of  all  these  misfortunes, 
stands  thoroughly  acquitted.  They  believed  that  General  Jackson 
was  wronged,  and  that  is  the  solution  of  the  problem.  That  party 
leaders  became  interested  in  keeping  up  this  deception,  that  they 
are  yet  so  interested,  and  will  be  so  for  some  time  to  come,  is  un- 
doubtedly true.  Nevertheless,  the  people  were  honest,  and  they 
are  generally  so.  There  must  be  a  time  for  the  reaction  of  truth. 
Twenty  years  have  elapsed,  and  not  a  particle  of  evidence  has 
ever  been  adduced  in  support  of  the  charges  against  Mr.  Clay  by 
General  .Jackson  and  his  friends,  notwithstanding  all  that  time  has 
been  diligently  employed  for  that  purpose.  All  the  witnesses  to 
the  fact  or  facts  alleged  against  Mr.  Clay,  were  in  the  house  of  rep- 
resentatives when  Mr.  Adams  was  elected  in  1825.  Every  mem- 
ber of  that  body,  indeed,  was  a  witness,  and  every  friend  of  Gen- 
eral Jackson  was  interested  in  the  issue.  And  yet,  not  one  of  the 
latter  class  has  ever  been  brought  forward  as  a  witness,  except  Mr. 


472  REFLECTIONS. 

Buchanan  !  The  position  which  he  occupies  in  this  affair,  it  is 
supposed,  has  been  pretty  well  determined !  It  has  been  seen, 
that  the  last  effort  to  sustain  this  charge,  made  by  the  Hon.  Linn 
Boyd,  on  the  floor  of  the  house  of  representatives,  in  1844,  ended 
in  the  acquittal  of  Mr.  Clay,  by  the  confession  of  the  accusing 
party ! 

But  time  and  events  have  placed  this  whole  matter  in  new  and 
clear  light.  It  seems  it  does  not  end  with  the  acquittal  of  Mr. 
Clay.  The  very  unexpected  result  has  transpired,  that  the  accu- 
sing party  were  themselves  guilty  of  the  crime  they  alleged  against 
the  accused !  If,  now  that  they  are  put  on  their  defence — that  is 
their  position — after  having,  in  a  laborious  effort  of  twenty  years, 
exhausted  the  entire  range  of  evidence,  such  as  they  sought  for, 
they  should,  in  desperation,  attempt  to  bring  forward  any  new 
facts,  it  will  be  a  just  mark  of  suspicion.  They  are  apparently 
compelled  to  defend  on  the  old  ground  of  debate,  or  surrender. 
If  they  should  say,  that  one  side  is  as  well  entitled  to  present  new 
facts,  as  the  other,  the  answer  is,  that  they  are  not  convicted  by 
new  facts,  but  by  their  own  evidence,  and  by  the  disclosure  of 
some  of  their  own  transactions,  which  had  been  suppressed  at 
their  own  request,  and  from  magnanimity  to  themselves. 

Mr.  Clay  now  stands  forth  before  the  world  as  the  innocent 
AND  INJURED  MAN.  That  his  acquittal  should  involve  those  who 
have  attempted  to  injure  him,  in  fault,  is  a  result  of  which  they 
can  not  justly  complain.  It  is  undoubtedly  true,  that  Mr.  Clay, 
after  this  investigation,  will  stand  precisely  where  he  did  before, 
in  the  esteem  and  respect  of  all  those  who  were  possessed  of  com- 
petent information  to  decide  this  complicated  question,  or  who 
were  capable  of  seeing  the  moral  impossibility  of  the  truth  of  the 
charge  alleged  against  him.  But  it  is  believed,  that  the  whole 
case  is  now  brought  under  the  eye  of  every  one,  who  may  take 
the  trouble  of  looking  at  it,  in  a  manner  to  qualify  the  plainest  man 
for  a  decision.  All  are  interested  in  the  triumph  of  truth  and  jus- 
tice. In  this  matter,  the  whole  nation  is  profoundly  interested. 
The  world  is  interested  in  an  injustice  done  to  one  of  its  shining 
lights.     Posterity,  remote  ages  to  come,  will  be  interested. 

Great  as  have  been  the  effects  on  the  interests  of  the  United 
States,  involved  in  the  question,  whether  General  Jackson  or  Mr. 
Clay  was  the  injured  man,  they  are  not  greater  than,  they  are  not 
even  equal  in  importance  to,  those  which  are  still  pending  on  the 
decision  of  the  same  question.     The  virtue  of  the  people,  as  admit- 


REFLECTIONS.  473 

fed — it  is  believed  to  have  been  the  cause  of  the  first  and  long- 
continued  result — originally  enlisted  impetuously  in  its  sympathies 
with  the  accusing  party.  It  remains  to  be  determined,  whether 
intelligence  and  virtue  united,  will  come  to  a  right  conclusion  on 
the  evidences  of  this  case.  The  question  undoubtedly  presents 
one  of  the  most  important  features  in  the  political  history  of  the 
United  States,  past,  present,  and  future. 

The  uses  that  have  been  made  of  the  executive  veto,  and  of  the 
appointing  power,  since  the  commencement  of  the  Jackson  regime, 
are  just  subjects  of  profound  concern  with  every  American  patriot. 
It  is  impossible  that  a  free  people  should  be  too  vigilant  of  their 
rights.  The  tendency  of  power  is  always  to  usurpation,  and 
never,  perhaps,  was  that  tendency  more  strikingly  manifested,  than 
in  the  short  history  of  the  United  States.  When  changes  steal 
into  the  administration  of  the  government,  involving  radical,  fun- 
damental, or  revolutionary  principles,  hostile  to  the  original  inten- 
tions of  those  who  founded  the  government,  such  facts  can  not 
safely  be  overlooked,  or  suffered  to  pass  without  remonstrance. 
Mr.  Calhoun,  while  speaking  on  the  protest  of  General  Jackson 
sent  to  the  senate  in  1834,  against  the  censure  of  that  body  on 
the  removal  of  the  deposites,  said,  that  whenever  the  senate 
allowed  the  frontier  of  their  rights  to  be  passed  by  an  assailant, 
they  were  more  than  half  conquered.  It  is  the  same  with  a  na- 
tion, and  the  people  of  the  United  States  have  long  exhibited  the 
melancholy  spectacle  of  being  more  than  half  conquered.  Exec- 
utive vetoes,  never  authorized  by  the  spirit,  however  they  may 
have  been  by  the  letter,  of  the  constitution,  have  been  showered 
upon  them,  as  freely  as  stones  in  a  hail-storm.  It  is  a  regal  pre- 
rogative, and  not  a  monarch  in  Europe  would  sit  safe  on  his  throne, 
that  should  use  it  so  arbitrarily,  as  it  has  been  used  in  the  United 
States.     It  is  fatal  to  democratic  authority  and  influence. 

The  arrogation  of  the  treaty-making  power  by  the  executive,  to 
originate  and  negotiate  such  international  arrangements,  indepen- 
dent of  the  co-ordinate  authority  of  the  senate,  is  a  feature  of  the 
practical  operation  of  the  government  of  the  United  States,  never 
contemplated,  either  by  the  framers  of  the  constitution  or  by  the 
people,  and  never  practised  in  the  early  days  of  the  republic.  It 
has  been  a  gradual  appropriation  of  power  by  the  executive,  which 
belonged  equally  to  another  branch  of  the  government.  The  pres- 
ident's control  over  executive  appointments  has  become  absolute, 
and  the  senate,  co-equal  in  constitutional  power  as  to  this  matter, 


474  REFLECTIONS. 

is  a  mere  cipher.  The  custom  of  controlling  legislation  by  the 
executive  branch,  in  announcing  beforehand  what  measures  will 
and  will  not  be  sanctioned  by  that  department,  appears  to  have  ori- 
ginated with  Mr.  Monroe  in  his  first  annual  message  to  Congress, 
touching  internal  improvements.  It  can  not  be  supposed  from  the 
general  character  of  Mr.  Monroe,  that  he  was  willing  to  do  a  thing 
that  was  improper,  or  that  he  could  have  been  aware  of  the  evil 
that  might  grow  out  of  his  example.  Mr.  Clay,  as  has  been  seen 
in  this  work,  protested  against  it  at  once,  not  from  disrespect  to  or 
in  censure  of  the  president,  but  from  principle.  What  he  appre- 
hended came  like  a  flood  upon  the  country  in  after-time,  till 
the  balance-power  of  the  constitution,  in  this  and  in  other  partic- 
ulars, was  entirely  destroyed.  The  veto  power,  as  appears  from 
history  contemporaneous  with  the  origin  of  the  constitution,  was 
never  designed  to  affect  legislation  any  further  than  to  protect  the 
executive  from  the  encroachments  of  the  legislative  branch,  which 
at  that  time  were  very  groundlessly  apprehended.  There  has  never 
been  a  single  occasion  of  its  use  for  that  purpose.  In  every  case 
of  the  exercise  of  this  power,  therefore,  it  has  been  employed  for 
a  purpose  not  intended  by  the  authority  under  which  it  was  wielded. 
But  so  long  as  that  power  is  in  the  constitution,  and  so  long  as 
high  precedent  has  sanctioned  its  use,  it  was  quite  sufficient  as  a 
dormant  and  discretionary  prerogative,  without  parading  it  before- 
hand in  terrorcm  over  the  heads  of  the  legislative  branch,  in  offi- 
cial communications  to  that  body,  to  abridge  their  liberty,  destroy 
their  independence,  and  circumscribe  their  action.  There  is  no 
apology  even  in  the  defence  that  it  was  to  save  trouble.  The  con- 
stitution would  never  justify  the  discharge  of  such  a  function,  for 
such  a  reason;  but  it  presupposed,  that  the  executive  was  as  much 
bound  to  weigh  the  reasons  that  might  be  offered  in  the  debates  of 
Congress  for  any  pending  measure,  as  that  it  would  be  incumbent 
on  Congress  to  consider  his  objections  on  the  return  of  a  bill  to 
which  he  might  see  fit  to  refuse  his  assent.  There  is,  to  say  the 
least,  no  equality  of  right,  but  in  this  fair  balancing  of  opinion. 
But  for  the  executive  to  decide  a  question  for  the  legislature  be- 
forehand, is  not  simply  an  impropriety,  but  a  violence  to  the  con- 
stitutional relations  of  the  two  parties,  and  cutting  off  all  debate. 
It  is,  so  far,  a  destruction  of  freedom. 

It  is  obvious,  therefore,  that  the  history  of  the  government  of 
the  United  States,  since  its  formation,  establishes  the  fact,  that  the 
regal  power  of  the  consthution  has  been  gradually  encroaching  on 


REFLECTIONS.  475 

the  rights  of  the  democratic  branch,  till  it  has  absorbed  so  much 
of  the  latter  as  to  destroy  the  balance-power  that  was  intended  by 
the  constitution  to  be  secured  to  the  legislature — to  wit,  the  rights 
of  Congress  in  the  joint  authority  of  both  houses,  and  the  co-ordi- 
nate rights  of  the  senate  as  to  the  executive  functions  which  the 
constitution  had  intrusted  to  their  hands.  The  frontier  has  been 
passed,  and  the  nation  is  more  than  half  conquered,  on  the  princi- 
ple set  forth  by  Mr.  Calhoun,  in  his  argument  against  General 
Jackson's  protest. 

The  disappointment  occasioned  by  the  defection  and  perfidy  of 
Mr.  Tyler,  has  led  many  to  feel  and  to  say,  that  the  political  revo- 
lution of  1840  was  lost  to  the  country.  This  is  a  hasty  conclu- 
sion. That  much — that  the  main  design  of  reform  and  of  re- 
establishing the  policy  under  which  the  country  had  prospered — 
was  lost,  is  true.  But  all  was  not  lost.  The  twenty-seventh  Con- 
gress, notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  the  acting  president,  ac- 
complished much,  as  has  been  shown.  It  were  enough  to  say  of 
them,  that  they  enacted  the  tariff  of  1842. 

But  the  most  important  effect  of  that  change — the  change  itself 
was  the  effect — was  the  entire  breaking  up  of  the  Jackson  regime. 
That  the  fragments  should  remain,  again  to  rally  and  cohere,  un- 
der new  modifications,  as  in  1844,  was  to  be  expected,  as  the 
effect  of  former  association  and  discipline.  But  the  Jackson  re- 
gime was  dissolved  for  ever  in  1840.  It  was  not  till  after  a  long 
period,  and  a  vast  amount  of  suffering,  that  the  people  were 
thoroughly  convinced  of  the  errors — of  the  positive  vices  of  that 
state  of  things.  The  great  conspiracy  exposed  in  the  first  volume 
of  this  work,  had,  by  ils  success,  taken  the  public  mind  captive, 
and  held  it  spell-bound  for  the  half  of  a  generation.  It  was  only 
by  suffering,  long  protracted  and  intolerable,  that  the  charm  was 
broken.  But  when  it  did  give  way,  it  burst  like  the  barriers  of 
an  overwhelming  flood,  having  stood  up  to  the  last  moment  of  pos- 
sible resistance.  It  was  then  overborne,  and  left  a  wreck  never  to 
be  repaired.  What  other  forms  of  force  and  power  those  scattered 
elements  may  assume,  and  what  may  be  their  destiny,  is  a  problem 
yet  to  be  solved.  That  they  did  rally  with  success  in  1844,  is 
but  too  well  known.  But  though  charged  with  a  like  spirit,  it  is 
not  the  same  thing,  and  never  can  be.  If  it  is  destined  to  maintain 
its  ascendency,  it  may  do  worse,  or  it  may  do  better,  or  it  may  not 
be  able  to  do  so  much  hurt.  It  is  now  hardly  possible  for  it  to 
break  down  the  protective  policy,  which  is  the  great  interest  of  the 


476  REFLECTIONS. 

country,  without  breaking  down  itself.  That  it  will  try,  appears 
to  be  evident.  But  some  great  diversion,  such  as  involving  the 
nation  in  war,  presents  one  of  its  best  chances,  of  which  it  seems 
to  be  aware.  There  is  perhaps  some  danger,  that  it  will  succeed 
in  this.  The  Oregon  question  will  be  made  the  issue  of  the  pres- 
idential campaign  of  1848,  if  it  is  not  so  managed  as  to  breed 
war  before  ;  and  they  who  now  have  that  question  in  charge,  on 
the  part  of  the  United  States,  know  very  well,  that  all  they  have 
to  do,  is  to  keep  their  opponents  employed  in  asserting  British 
rights,  and  vindicating  British  claims  !  It  might  naturally  be  sup- 
posed, that  the  British  government  is  competent  to  take  care  of  its 
own  rights. 

But  it  will  probably  be  discovered  before  long,  that  Mr.  Clay 
presented  the  great  principles  of  the  Oregon  question  twenty  years 
ago,  in  his  letter  of  instructions  to  the  representatives  from  the 
United  States  to  the  Panama  congress,  marked  the  boundary  line 
of  the  United  States  on  the  north  to  the  Pacific,  and  proclaimed 
to  all  European  nations,  hitherto  may  ye  come,  but  no  further  ! 
The  colonization  question  is  there  thoroughly  discussed,  and  the 
conclusion  arrived  at,  that  the  time  had  then  passed,  and  could 
not  arrive  again,  when  the  American  states,  north  or  south,  should 
tolerate  the  further  establishment  of  European  colonies  in  North 
or  South  America.  This  question  was  apparently  determined  on 
the  recognised  principles  of  public  law.  It  was  maintained,  that 
it  would  be  equally  proper  for  American  slates  to  plant  colonies  in 
Europe,  as  for  European  states  to  establish  any  more  colonies  in 
America.  This  was  the  ground  taken  by  Mr.  J.  Q.  Adams'  ad- 
ministration, through  the  agency  of  Mr.  Clay,  as  secretary  of  state, 
in  the  official  documents  on  the  subject,  the  reasonings  of  which 
are  clear,  and  apparently  incontrovertible,  and  the  conclusion  seems 
to  be  distinct  and  impregnable.  The  Oregon  question  was  then 
determined,  so  far  as  that  species  of  argument  is  entitled  to  influ- 
ence. Among  Americans  there  can  hardly  be  much  difference  of 
opinion  about  the  right  of  the  United  States  to  Oregon,  as  defined 
by  Mr.  Clay  (See  vol.  i.,  p.  139).  The  only  question  is,  whether 
it  is  best  to  go  to  fighting  for  it  unnecessarily  and  unseasonably. 
If  this  administration  pugnacity  be  indeed  a  political  device  to 
retain  power,  and  war  is  to  be  the  consequence,  it  is  melancholy 
to  think,  that  a  nation  is  liable  to  be  plunged  into  such  a  hazard, 
for  such  an  object ! 

There  is  a  point  of  great  importance  which  seems  to  be  proved 


REFLECTIONS.  477 

by  the  "  Southern  Planter,"  in  chapter  x.  of  this  volume,  which 
can  not  fail,  if  correct,  to  have  great  influence.  It  is,  that  cotton 
can  be  grown  in  the  United  States  "  at  a  living  profit,"  as  he  calls 
it,  for  three  cents  a  pound  ;  and  from  sundry  apparently  valid,  sta- 
tistical calculations  and  facts,  he  arrives  at  the  result,  that  Ameri- 
can planters  can  command  the  market  of  the  world  in  the  supply 
of  the  raw  material,  against  all  possible  competition,  from  around 
the  cape  of  Good  Hope,  or  elsewhere.  It  appears  also  to  be 
shown  by  him,  that  British  and  other  European  manufacturers  of 
cotton,  are  obliged  to  purchase  the  raw  material  from  American 
planters,  or  lose  their  markets — that  they  can  not  possibly  avoid 
it.  These  and  other  points,  which  seem  to  be  established  by  him, 
have  not  only  undermined,  and  completely  overthrown  all  the  ob- 
jections which  have  heretofore  been  made  from  the  south,  and  es- 
pecially from  the  planting  interest,  against  a  protective  tariff,  but 
they  have  also  proved,  that  no  interests  of  the  Union,  north  or 
south,  east  or  west,  are  so  much  benefited  by  protection,  as  the 
southern  planting  interests.  This,  as  will  be  seen,  agrees  with  the 
doctrine  of  Mr.  Clay,  and  of  this  work.  This  light  seems  to  be 
shedding  its  rays  on  the  south  like  a  flood.  A  convention  of  one 
hundred  and  four  cotton-planters  in  Mississippi — the  greatest  cot- 
ton growing  state  in  the  Union — held  in  1845,  published  a  mani- 
festo, of  which  some  statements  in  the  note  below,  are  extracts.* 

*They  say:  "  They  are  in  favor  of  such  a  tariff  as  that  of  1842,  because  it 
affords,  as  they  believe,  adequate  protection  to  all  kinds  of  domestic  labor,  and 
renders  us  independent  not  only  in  name  but  in  fact. 

"  Because  they  believe  it  will  induce  at  the  north  large  investments  of  capital 
and  the  employment  of  a  large  number  of  laborers  in  the  manufacture  of  cotton 
goods  ;  that  it  will  extend  the  consumption  of  manufactured  articles,  and  thereby 
increase  the  demand  for  the  raw  material ;  that  it  will  give  the  growers  of  cotton 
two  markets  instead  of  one,  and  one  of  those  a  home  market. 

"  Because  it  protects  indirectly  the  growers  of  small  grain,  and  gives  them  a 
home  market. 

"  Because  it  protects  indirectly  the  hemp-growers  and  gives  them  a  home  mar- 
ket, and  keeps  the  large  amount  of  capital  and  labor  now  invested  in  that  business 
from  being  employed  in  extending  the  culture  of  cotton. 

"  Because  it  protects  indirectly  the  breeders  of  hogs,  of  horses,  of  mules,  and 
gives  them  a  home  market. 

"  Because  it  protects  the  producer  of  sugar,  gives  him  a  home  market,  and  pre- 
vents the  vast  amount  of  capital  and  of  labor  invested  in  the  culture  of  cane  from 
being  directed  to  the  already  redundant  production  of  cotton. 

"  Because  they  believe  that  all  experience  proves  that  its  ultimate  tendency  is 
to  reduce  the  price  of  manufactured  goods,  and  thereby  benefit  consumers  of  all 
classes. 

"  Because  they  believe  that  no  one  great  interest  of  the  country  can  be  ade- 
quately protected,  without  in  some  degree  extending  protection  to  all  other  in- 
terests, and  that  none  derive  more  essential  benefit  from  the  general  prosperity  of 
other  pursuits  than  the  cotton-grower. 

"  But,  above  all,  they  are  in  favor  of  such  a  tariff  as  that  of  1842,  because  they 
believe  the  interests  of  the  manufacturers  of  cotton  goods  at  the  north  to  be  iden- 
tified with  the  interests  of  the  grower  of  cotton  at  the  south  ;  and  that  as  strength 


478  REFLECTIONS. 

It  will  be  seen,  that  the  statements  of  this  convention  of  Mis- 
sissippi cotton-planlers  fully  sustain  the  doctrine,  all  the  averments, 
and  all  the  facts  of  this  work,  regarding  the  protective  policv,  ex- 
cept they  do  not  approach  the  question  of  the  necessity  of  per- 
petual protection  in  the  United  States,  though  all  other  nations 
should  consent  to  free  trade.  But  they  have  said  enough.  They 
have  come  out  honestly,  boldly,  and  fully,  in  support  of  the 
protective  policy,  in  all  its  extent,  on  the  very  ground  that  has 
ever  been  maintained.  They  even  assert  the  doctrine  attempted  to 
be  established  in  this  work,  that  protective  duties  are  not  a  tax,  as 
has  been  commonly  supposed,  but  a  relief  from  taxation,  by  the 
effect  of  reducing  the  prices  of  the  articles  protected.  There  is 
no  point  in  the  doctrine  of  the  protective  policy,  which  is  not 
comprehended  or  suggested  in  their  statements. 

The  publication  of  the  work  of  "  A  Southern  Planter,"  in  1844, 
was  a  surprise.  This  manifesto  of  a  convention  of  Mississippi 
cotton-planters,  is  also  a  surprise.  It  demonstrates  the  rapidity 
with  which  light  is  opening  on  the  south.  Who  will  not  be  as- 
tonished, to  hear  a  convention  of  southern  cotton-planters  declare 
their  belief,  that  "  the  interests  of  the  manufacturers  of  cotton  goods 
at  the  north,  are  identified  with  the  interests  of  the  grower  of  cot- 
ton at  the  south  ?"  Verily,  the  protective  policy  has  apparently 
triumphed  in  the  United  States,  and  it  may  reasonably  be  sup- 
posed, that  the  debate  on  the  subject  will  be  of  short  duration. 

Almost  simultaneously  with  the  meeting  of  this  convention  of 
Mississippi  cotton-planters,  a  tariff  convention  was  held  at  Holli- 
daysburg,  Pennsylvania,  consisting  chiefly  of  those  who  voted  in 
that  state  for  Mr.  Polk,  in  1844,  they  believing  from  his  letter  to 
John  K.  Kane,  that  he  was  in  favor  of  protection.  Mr.  Polk,  how- 
ever, might  very  justly  reply  to  them,  that  if  they  did  not  under- 
stand the  grammar  of  language,  it  was  not  his  fault ;  that  by  "  dis- 
criminating  duties"  he  did  not  mean  a  leaning  toward  protection, 
hni from  protection  toward  revenue;  that  by  "incidental  protec- 
tion," he  meant  such  as  could  not  be  prevented  in  obtaining  a 
revenue  ;  and  that,  if  they  had  taken  the  trouble  to  examine  his 
"  public  acts"  (votes  and  speeches  in  Congress),  and  "  the  pubhc 

is  added  to  these  two  great  interests,  the  one  at  the  north  and  the  other  at  the 
south,  so  will  strength  be  added  to  the  bands  which  bind  this  glorious  Union  to- 
gether;  and  they  do  solemnly  believe  that  if  the  system  of  affording  adequate  pro- 
tection to  American  industry  be  persevered  in  but  for  a  few  years,  all  the  great  in- 
terests of  the  country  will  become  so  blended  and  so  dependent,  one  upon  another, 
that  all  attempts,  whether  of  abolitionists  or  abstractionists,  to  destroy  our  be- 
loved Union,  will  be  laughed  to  scorn  for  centuries  to  come." 


REFLECTIONS.  479 

discussions  in  which  he  had  participated"  elsewhere,  to  which 
he  had  referred  in  that  letter,  they  would  have  had  no  difficulty  in 
ascertaining  his  sentiments.  But  the  views  of  this  Pennsylvania 
tariff  convention,  are  an  important  feature  of  the  times,  the  sub- 
stance of  which  may  be  gathered  from  their  own  resolutions  pre- 
sented in  the  note  below.* 

When  the  American  people  shall  be  asked,  who  fought  and  won 
for  them  this  great  battle  of  the  protective  policy  ?  Who  devoted 
his  life,  exhausted  his  energies,  and  sacrificed  himself,  to  secure 
to  them  such  a  benefit  ?  Who  stepped  in  between  the  fires  of  nul- 
lification and  the  wrath  of  General  Jackson,  to  quench  the  one, 
and  muzzle  the  other  ?  Who  saved  the  protective  policy  in  that 
perilous  hour?  Who  fought  on  for  ten  years  more  against  all  the 
efforts  and  machinations  of  the  Jackson  regime,  and  in  the  end 
saved  this  policy  from  utter  destruction — till  it  was  incorporated 
in  the  act  of  1S42  ?  Who — who  was  the  man  ?  His  name  is  in 
their  hearts,  and  on  their  tongues,  and  need  not  be  mentioned. 

Mr.  Clay,  of  course,  had  his  coadjutors  in  all  these  great  en- 
deavors— men  who  stood  by  and  sustained  him — men  of  great 
talents  and  worth,  whose  biographies  will  tell  their  own  story,  and 
to  whose  names  a  comprehensive  history  of  the  times  will  do  jus- 
tice. In  a  work  of  this  kind,  professedly  devoted  to  the  history 
of  one  man,  who  has  occupied  such  an  eminent  position,  and  filled 
so  large  a  space  in  society,  there  was  no  room  to  do  anything  like 
justice  to  his  many  distinguished  contemporaries,  not  a  few  of 

*  "  Resolved,  That  the  state  of  Pennsylvania  is  deeply  interested  in  the  main- 
tenance and  preservation  of  the  protective  policy  afforded  by  the  existing  revenue 
tariff. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  people  of  this  state  comprehend  the  value,  understand  the 
importance,  and  are  pledged  to  the  support,  and  can  not  be  seduced  into  the  aban- 
donment or  betrayal  of  that  policy,  which  in  the  brief  period  of  three  years  has 
reanimated  the  almost  desponding  energies  and  restored  the  prostrate  credit  of  this 
commonwealth. 

"  Resolved,  That  we  are  opposed  to  a  horizontal  or  twenty  per  cent,  ad  valorem 
tariff,  inasmuch  as  it  neither  affords  fair,  just,  nor  adequate  protection  to  many  of 
the  great  interests  of  the  state  of  Pennsylvania ;  nor  can  it  afford  revenue  suf- 
ficient to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  government  economically  administered. 

"Resolved,  That  the  tariff  of  1842  has  yielded  sufficient  revenue  to  defray  the 
expenses  of  the  government  economically  administered,  and  has  afforded  'fair  and 
just  protection  to  all  the  great  interests  of  the  whole  Union,  embracing  agriculture, 
manufactures,  the  mechanic  arts,  commerce,  and  navigation.' 

"  Resolved,  That  justice  and  sound  policy  forbid  the  federal  government  to  re- 
peal, or  in  any  way  materially  alter  or  modify  the  tariff' of  1842,  so  long  as  the 
same  yields  sufficient  revenue  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  government. 

"  Resolved,  That  this  convention,  therefore,  respectfully  demand  at  the  hands  of 
the  congress  of  the  Union  that  general  protection  which  is  their  inheritance  ;  that 
the  existing  system  of  revenue  having  fulfilled  its  great  object,  it  is  highly  impor- 
tant that  the  laws  on  such  subjects  as  the  tariff  should  be  permanent  in  their 
character,  which  would  be  a  sure  guaranty  to  the  enterprise  of  the  country  and 
the  investment  of  capital." 


480 


REFLECTIONS. 


whom  liave  been  at  the  same  time  lig'its  and  benefactors  of  their 
country.  Their  names  and  labors  are  incorporated  with  the  annals 
of  the  nation.  They  were  a  phalanx  of  patriots,  toiling  hand  in 
hand  with  a  leader  whom  all  acknowledged,  whose  fame  is  identi- 
fied with  theirs,  and  in  history  they  can  not  be  dislodged  from  the 
places  they  filled  and  honored  so  well. 

The  public  land  question  is  still  one  of  great  importance,  as 
connected  with  the  rights  and  welfare  of  the  states,  in  their  sepa- 
rate capacity.  That  vast  interest  is  yet  afloat,  and  beat  about,  in 
the  storms  of  political  controversy.  Repeatedly  has  it  been  set- 
tled by  decided  majorities  of  the  democratic  branch  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  as  often  unsettled  by  the  arrogation  of  regal  power  in  the 
executive.  Mr.  Clay's  plan,  since  it  was  disclosed  and  under- 
stood, has  always  carried  with  it  a  great  majority  of  the  people  ; 
and  yet  the  will  of  the  people  has  been  thwarted.  The  most  im- 
portant aspect  of  this  question  is  its  relation  to  the  credit  of  the 
indebted  states,  and  to  the  interests  of  all  the  states.  The  distri- 
bution of  the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands  is  indispensable  to  the 
substantial  relief  of  the  former  class,  and  essential  to  the  greatest 
prosperity  of  all.  An  adequate  protective  tariff  would  easily  setde, 
in  a  few  years,  all  the  state  debts  as  a  foreign  demand  against  the 
people  of  the  United  States  as  a  whole,  and  bring  back  the  bonds, 
or  an  equivalent.  An  annual  balance  of  twenty  millions,  arising 
from  foreign  trade,  in  favor  of  the  United  States,  is  the  smallest 
income  that  is  fairly  due  to  the  amount  of  American  enterprise, 
industry,  toil,  hazard,  and  capital,  embarked  in  it ;  and  that  balance, 
in  ten  years,  would  settle  all  the  state  debts,  as  a  foreign  demand 
against  the  whole  people  of  the  United  States,  though  it  would 
not,  as  a  matter  of  course,  relieve  the  indebted  states,  any  further 
than  the  country  would  be  relieved — which,  indeed,  would  be  a 
substantial  relief.  The  hquidation  of  this  foreign  debt,  in  this 
way,  would  not  probably  be  realized  in  balancing  all  these  accounts 
specifically.  But  so  far  as  the  whole  country  is  concerned,  it 
would  be  the  same  thing  in  its  effects.  In  the  case  of  a  large 
family,  holding  jointly  a  large  estate,  with  heavy  mortgages  upon 
it,  owned  by  creditors  without  the  family  circle,  it  does  not  matter 
with  the  family  as  a  whole,  if  they  have  succeeded  in  lifting  those 
mortgages,  and  transferring  them  to  some  one  or  more  of  their 
own  members.  Though  they  still  stand  in  the  relation  of  debtors 
and  creditors  to  each  other,  it  can  no  longer  be  said  that  they  owe 
anybody  out  of  the  family — that  the  estate  is  encumbered.     This 


REFLECTIONS.  481 

is  precisely  the  case  with  the  national  debt  of  Great  Britain.  The 
owners  of  that  stock  are  not  foreigners,  but  British  subjects.  As 
a  mation  Great  Britain  is  no  otherwise  poorer  on  this  account,  ex- 
cept that  she  is  obliged  to  tax  her  people  heavily  to  pay  interest 
money  to  her  own  subjects.  It  may  be,  and  undoubtedly  is,  a 
difficult  and  delicate  financial  operation  to  keep  this  state  of  things 
from  working  evil — at  best,  it  is  an  evil,  as  it  operates  oppressively 
on  the  industry,  labor,  and  arts  of  the  empire.  Nevertheless,  a 
domestic  debt  withdraws  nothing  from  the  bosom  of  the  state  ; 
whereas,  a  foreign  debt  of  this  kind  would  ruin  the  kingdom  hope- 
lessly. It  has  also  been  seen,  in  this  work,  that  the  annual  balance 
of  trade  in  favor  of  the  domestic  empire  of  Great  Britain,  is  suf- 
ficient to  augment  her  wealth  and  strength  almost  incalculably. 
Her  debt  being  domestic,  and  her  annual  income  so  great,  as  the 
result  of  her  system  of  protection,  so  long  in  use,  and  so  compre- 
hensive, she  has  become  the  most  formidable  political  fabric  in  the 
world.  Her  domestic  polity  is  inconsistent  with  the  freedom  and 
happiness  of  those  who  do  her  hard  work.  It  is  oppressive.  Nor 
does  her  foreign  policy  approximate  to  justice  to  other  parties.  It 
is  expressly  designed  to  make  the  world  tributary  to  her  strength 
— not  a  little  of  which  has  been  acquired  by  the  terms  on  which 
she  has  been  permitted  to  hold  commercial  intercourse  with  the 
United  States.  She  has  ever  kept  them  in  debt  to  her,  and  that 
debt  is  now  enormous — oppressive — all  the  result  of  an  inadequate 
protective  system  in  this  quarter. 

It  is  not  in  place  here  to  repeat  the  argument  before  made,  to 
show,  that  protective  duties  are  not  a  tax  to  any  party,  but  a  re- 
lief from  taxation  to  all  parties.  It  must  consequently  follow,  that 
a  system  of  protection  in  the  United  States,  that  should  bring  an 
annual  balance  of  twenty  millions  in  favor  of  the  country,  from  its 
foreign  trade — which,  as  before  shown,  is  no  more  than  a  fair  com- 
pensation for  its  toils  and  hazards — would  in  ten  years  strike  off 
the  balance  due  to  foreign  parts,  and  to  that  extent  add  to  the 
wealth  and  strength  of  the  country. 

Nevertheless,  the  distribution  of  the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands 
among  the  states,  would  still  be  required  effectually  to  relieve  the 
indebted  states,  and  to  put  all  of  them  in  a  career  of  the  greatest 
prosperity.  A  relief  to  the  country,  as  a  whole,  by  a  fair  income 
from  its  foreign  trade,  is  due  to  it — is  indispensable — and  can  no 
otherwise  be  realized  than  by  a  system  of  protection  adapted  to 
that  end.     Protection  and  distribution  would  be  twin  helps — the 

Vol.  II.— 31 


482  REFLECTIONS. 

first  for  the  country  comprehending  the  states,  and  the  latter  for 
the  states  to  render  their  condition  and  prospects  most  desirable. 
And  protection,  properly  adjusted,  as  has  been  shown  in  this  work, 
would  afford  ample  revenue  to  the  general  government,  so  that  it 
could  aftbrd  to  dispense  the  proceeds  of  the  public  lands  among 
the  states,  even  if  it  were  not  their  right.  It  has  also  been  abun- 
dantly shown,  that  protection,  not  being  a  tax  on  any  parties,  is  a 
relief  to  all,  and  consequently,  that  no  remaining  objection  can  be 
felt  or  made,  when  the  subject  is  understood.  The  only  danger 
— if  it  can  be  called  a  danger — is,  that  adequate  protection  will 
yield  a  surplus  revenue,  at  the  same  time  that,  in  its  other  bear- 
ings, it  benefits  the  whole  country,  and  all  parties  in  it. 

It  has  been  seen,  in  the  progress  of  this  work,  when  the  sub- 
ject was  up,  "that  currency  is  a  part  of  policy  necessarily  con- 
nected with  protection;  that  the  very  existence  of  a  sound  cur- 
rency depends  on  an  adequate  protective  system;  and  that  it  is 
impossible,  in  the  nature  of  things,  that  there  should  ever  be  an 
unsound  currency,  when  protection  is  adequate,  unless,  indeed,  it 
should  come  from  very  culpable  legislation.  It  is  at  least  impos- 
sible, in  such  a  case,  that  there  should  be  any  lack  of  money,  or 
specie,  in  the  country;  and  when  that  abounds,  the  currency  has 
never  been  known  to  be  unsound.  As  a  general  rule — there  is 
perhaps  no  exception — when  money  is  in  the  country,  in  such  a 
quantity  as  a  suitable  protective  system  will  secure  and  retain,  the 
currency  will  very  naturally  take  care  of  itself,  under  any  tolerably 
prudent  legislation.  There  may  be  instances  of  fraud  ani  mis- 
management in  banks,  as  in  all  commercial  transactions.  But  the 
failure  of  a  bank  from  one  or  the  other  of  these  causes,  no  more 
afiects  a  general  system,  than  the  failure  of  a  merchant  disturbs 
the  commercial  operations  of  a  great  city.  A  sound  system  of 
banking,  and  a  healthful  state  of  commerce,  can  not  be  impaired 
by  such  local  and  transient  disturbances ;  and  the  soundness  of  a 
banking  system  depends  on  specie  as  a  basis,  which  can  not  be 
maintained,  so  long  as  foreign  demands  are  withdrawing  specie 
from  the  country.  And  whether  speoie  shall  abound  or  fly  away, 
depends,  as  has  been  shown,  altogether  on  the  adequacy  of  a  pro- 
tective system. 

The  question  of  a  national  bank  is  one  of  trivial  consequence, 
compared  with  that  of  a  protective  policy.  Neither  a  national 
bank,  nor  state  banks,  can  be  properly  sustained  without  the  lat- 
ter, for  the  reasons,  first,  that  specie  enough  for  the  business  of  the 


REFLECTIONS.  483 

country  can  not  be  retained,  except  by  a  protective  system ;  and 
next,  because  banks  can  not  supply  a  sound  currency  without  spe- 
cie. They  can  not  answer  the  purposes  of  banking,  unless  their 
vaults  are  always  kept  open  to  all  just  demands.  But  this  can  not 
be  maintained  with  a  perpetual  balance  of  trade  against  the  coun- 
try, which  operates  directly  on  bank  vaults,  to  empty  them ;  and 
which  must  necessarily  be  the  case,  without  a  protective  system. 
But  where  the  protective  policy  is  so  managed — there  is  no  insu- 
perable difiiculty — as  steadily  to  maintain  a  small  balance  in  favor 
of  the  country,  a  sound  currency  can  not  become  unsound — can 
neither  be  deficient,  nor  embarrassed. 

There  are  those  who  think  that  the  banking  system  would  be 
more  perfect,  and  more  safe,  with  a  national  bank  as  a  balance- 
power  against  the  state  banks;  that  such  a  balance  is  as  necessary 
in  the  currency  as  in  the  political  system  of  the  country ;  and  that 
neither  can  answer  the  best  purposes  without  it.  The  analogy  is 
a  strong  one,  and  must  have  great  force  with  unbiased  minds. 
There  is  nothing  but  the  want  of  this  balance  that  could  make  the 
state-bank  system  dubious  in  its  results,  under  a  good  protective 
policy.  It  is  certainly  a  subject  of  some  concern,  that  having  no 
check  of  this  kind,  they  may  venture  too  far,  and  overtrade  in  the 
use  of  their  powers.  But  an  adequate  protective  system  is  the 
surest  guaranty  against  such  a  result.  Mr.  Clay  has  always  main- 
tained, that  a  national  bank  is  simply  a  question  of  expediency, 
and  so  it  undoubtedly  is;  and  he  has  repeatedly  declared,  that  he 
would  neither  desire,  nor  propose  it,  unless  the  people  desire  it. 

One  of  the  great  evils  of  the  country  has  been  fickleness  of  le- 
gislation, and  an  incertitude  forced  on  the  prospects  of  all  men  of 
capital,  enterprise,  and  business,  as  to  what  they  might  safely  ven- 
ture upon,  for  their  own  and  the  country's  good — for  it  may  gener- 
ally be  assumed,  that  when  capital  and  enterprise  employ  labor  for 
a  profit  to  both  parties,  it  is  for  the  good  of  the  country. 

In  a  private  letter  of  Mr.  Clay  to  Judge  Brooke,  from  Wash- 
ington, January  17,  1833,  he  says: — 

"As  to  politics,  we  have  no  past,  no  future.  After  forty-four 
years  of  existence  under  the  present  constitution,  what  single  prin- 
ciple is  fixed?  The  bank?  No.  Internal  improvements?  No. 
The  tariff?  No.  Who  is  to  interpret  the  constitution?  No.  We 
are  as  much  at  sea,  as  at  the  day  when  the  constitution  went  into 
operation.  There  is  nothing  certain,  but  that  the  will  of  Andrew 
Jackson  is  to  govern,  and  that  will  fluctuates  with  the  change  of 
every  pen  that  gives  expression  to  it." 


4S4  REFLECTIONS. 

If  there  was  despondency  in  this,  there  was  also  much  of  truth. 
If,  indeed,  there  had  been,  previous  to  that  time,  1833,  an  approx- 
imation in  the  history  of  the  country  toward  the  settlement  of  any 
great  questions  of  national  policy,  everything  then  seemed  to  have 
been  unsettled  by  the  cause  alluded  to  in  this  private  epistle. 
Even  the  principle  of  self-protection  seemed  to  have  lost  its  force, 
and  men  were  half  persuaded  that  it  was  better  to  open  their  doors, 
and  let  in  thieves  and  robbers  by  free  trade. 

One  of  the  causes  of  this  vrtjixcdness  brought  upon  the  country 
by   the    Jackson    regime — more    properly,   perhaps,    one   of  the 
mcajis — was  a  successful  eifort  to  excite  envy,  jealousy,  and  hos- 
tility, between  classes,  and  to  bring  that  hostility  into  political  action, 
for  the  advantage  of  those  who  used  it  as  an  instrument,  and  for 
the  ruin  of  the  many  who  were  thus  abused.     The  feeling  appealed 
to,  and  the  principle  relied  upon,  was,  "that  man  who  rides  in  his 
carriage,  has  no  right  to  ride  in  his  carriage,  and  we  go  on  foot." 
First,  it  was  the  bank  of  the  United  States;  then  all  banks;  then 
all  combinations  of  capital  whatever,  associated  to  accomplish  what 
its  separate  parts  could  not  do;  manufactories;  companies  of  every 
sort,  in  which  capital  was  vested  to  carry  out  great  enterprises ; — 
all  those  institutions  and  associations,  which  supplied  the  circulating 
medium  of  the  country,  made  money  plenty  and  good,  employed 
labor  of  every  kind,  at  high  wages,  created  a  home  market  for  every 
product  of  labor,  whether  employed  in  agriculture,  or  in  horticul- 
ture, or  in  the  manufacturing  and  mechanic  arts,  or  in  commerce, 
or  in  the  professions,  or  in  the  mines,  or  in  the  sea,  at  home  or 
abroad,  were  represented  as  enemies  of  the  masses,  hostile  to  labor — 
monojjolics  that  must  be  broken  down  ;  and  by  breaking  them  down, 
the  people  themselves  were  broken  down.     The  effect  was  inevit- 
able from  the  cause.     An  attempt  was  made  to  revolutionize  the 
habits  of  the  people,  and  to  destroy  those  relations  in  the  commer- 
cial and  political  machinery  of  society,   which  could   not  be  de- 
stroyed, without  destroying  the  parties  between  whom  those  rela- 
tions subsisted — and    all  went  down   toa^ether.     Freedom  was  in 
the  country,  and   labor  was  employed ;  and  the  employment  of 
labor,  at  a  fair  price,  gave  every  working  man  a  chance  to  rise  in 
the  world,  become  rich  in  his  turn,  and  then  to  help  others  to  rise 
by  giving  them  employment.     But  when  employers  are  crippled, 
the  consequence  need  not  be  told — all  fall  together.     Such  has 
been  the  melancholy  history  of  the  United  States  for  the  best  part 
of  an  age  —such  the  aim  of  the  government  of  a  great  and  free 


REFLECTIONS.  485 

country,  to  excite  the  worst  passions  between  classes,  to  set  them  to 
preying  on  each  other,  that  they  who  raised  the  war,  might  profit 
on  the  common  and  universal  ruin  of  the  combatants! 

Considering  the  providential  event  of  General  Harrison's  de- 
cease, one  who  believes  in  the  political  principles  of  Mr.  Clay, 
can  not  but  look  back  with  feelings  of  profound  regret,  that,  by 
any  means  whatever — they  were  certainly  most  unfortunate,  if  jus- 
tifiable— Mr.  Clav  should  not  have  been  the  nominee  in  1839,  for 
1840,  as  he  must  have  been  elected  by  an  overwhelming  majority. 
That  decision  will  probably  remain  an  unaccountable  mystery,  un- 
less some  one  acquainted  with  the  secret  history  of  its  causes, 
shall  unfold  them.  That  they  would  be  instructive,  is  probably 
true;  but  whether  the  disclosure  would  be  useful,  is  a  question 
which  can  not,  perhaps,  be  so  easily  answered.  So  much  at  least 
may  be  gathered  from  its  clouds  of  uncertainty,  that  the  straight- 
forward course  indicated  by  popular  feeling,  is  always  the  safest, 
and  that  the  management  of  a  few  ought  not  to  control  the  will  of 
the  many. 

The  memory  of  William  Henry  Harrison  is  as  sacred,  as  his 
character  was  pure,  and  the  heart  of  the  nation  followed  him  to 
his  grave.  It  was  an  astounding  event,  over  which  a  great  people 
literally  wept.  An  unexampled  effort,  with  unexampled  success, 
raised  him  to  power  ;  and  scarcely  had  the  smiling  auspices  of  his 
administration  dawned,  when  his  gun  was  eclipsed  for  ever!  On 
the  4th  of  March,  1841,  he  was  inaugurated  president  of  the  Uni- 
ted States  ;  on  the  4th  of  April,  thirty-one  days  thereafter,  he  died  ! 
The  pall  of  grief  which  hung  over  'the  federal  capital,  was  op- 
pressive ;  and  the  wide  domain  of  the  republic  sympathized  not 
less  profoundly. 

The  cabinet  of  General  Harrison  was  judiciously  selected: 
Hon.  Daniel  Webster,  of  Massachusetts,  secretary  of  state  ;  Hon. 
Thomas  Ewing,  of  Ohio,  secretary  of  the  treasury;  Hon.  John 
Bell,  of  Tennessee,  secretary  of  war ;  Hon.  George  E.  Badger, 
of  North  Carolina,  secretary  of  the  navy  ;  Hon.  John  J.  Crittenden, 
of  Kentucky,  attorney  general  ;  and  Hon.  Francis  Granger,  of 
New  York,  postmaster-general. 

Such  was  the  opening  of  the  Harrison  administration,  which 
lasted  thirty  days  !  The  same  cabinet  remained  with  the  acting 
president,  Mr.  Tyler,  till  the  11th  of  September,  when,  after  the 
sad  development  of  Mr.  Tyler's  character,  before  noticed,  and  of 


486  REFLECTIONS. 

whlcli  the  world  are  sufficiently  advised,  all  of  them,  except 
Mr.  Webster,  felt  constrained,  in  honor  and  self-respect,  to  retire. 
Mr.  Webster,  it  was  alleged,  judged  it  to  be  his  duty  to  remain, 
on  account  of  the  pending  controversy  between  the  United  States 
and  Great  Britain,  in  regard  to  the  northeastern  boundary,  w^hich 
he  conducted  with  approved  ability,  brought  it  at  last  to  a  success- 
ful termination,  and  afterward  retired  himself.  Mr.  Tyler  brought 
around  him  a  cabinet  of  mixed  principles,  which  was  frequently 
changed  during  the  term  of  his  administration — his  first  and  steady 
aim  having  been  to  break  up  the  party,  on  whose  shoulders  he 
was  carried  into  power,  and  form  a  new  one,  with  a  view  to  his 
own  election  to  the  presidency  in  1844.  To  this  object,  principle, 
character,  friends,  party,  country,  were  sacrificed  ;  and  from  the 
moment  he  started,  though  his  eye  was  on  the  goal,  his  back  was 
toward  it,  and  every  step  he  was  leaving  it  further  and  further  in 
the  distance,  till  at  last  he  himself  lost  sight  of  it. 

One  of  the  greatest  mistakes  that  fallible  man  could  make,  was, 
that  the  party  which  triumphed  in  1840,  could  be  broken  up. 
That  it  could  be  disturbed,  and  its  strength  essentially  impaired,  by 
such  a  defection  of  a  chief  magistrate  whom  they  had  raised  to 
power,  with  such  means  as  he  held  in  his  hands,  was  true — too 
true.  But  the  principles  which  animated  them,  being  such  as  are 
disclosed  in  this  w^ork,  as  the  principles  of  Mr.  Clay — principles 
which  had  shaken  and  dissolved  the  Jackson  regime — were  too 
strong,  and  had  taken  too- powerful  a  hold  on  the  public  mind,  to 
yield  to  transient  and  accidental  causes.  Despondency  might  pre- 
vail for  a  season,  in  sight  of  such  stupendous  wa'ong — of  such 
lack  of  virtue,  of  such  depravity,  in  the  head  of  the  government, 
who  must  remain  there  long  enough  to  do  infinite  harm  ;  but  such 
principles,  planted  so  deeply,  and  resting  on  such  a  basis,  could  not 
be  shaken.  They  had  been  ripening  to  maturity  for  an  age,  for 
more  than  half  a  century  ;  they  had  been  rocked  by  the  convul- 
sions of  a  long  period  of  maladministration  ;  they  had  passed 
through  furnaces  of  trial,  and  were  purified  by  the  test ;  they  had 
assailed  the  most  powerful  regime  that  ever  overshadowed  the 
country  ;  they  had  triumphed  at  last ;  and  in  the  midst  of  triumph, 
were  betrayed  !  It  was  certainly  a  shock  ;  it  was  a  discourage- 
ment; and  nothing  but  truth  and  virtue  could  endure  it.  But  a 
resuscitation,  a  recovery,  and  a  fresh  effort,  were  inevitable.  A 
bad  man  at  the  head  of  the  government,  and  a  weak  administra- 
tion, could  indeed  depress  such  principles  for  a  time,  being  power- 


REFLECTIONS.  487 

less ;  but  nothing  could  destroy  them,  or  bar  their  action,  on  a 
fit  occasion. 

To  see  the  government  so  debased,  so  prostituted,  so  perverted 
from  its  designs,  so  abused,  was  indeed  a  melancholy  spectacle. 
To  behold  a  chief  magistrate  of  the  United  States  making  com- 
panions of  low  and  base  persons,  and  throwing  himself  into  their 
arms,  not  only  as  associates,  but  as  advisers  in  affairs  of  state, 
and  as  auxiliaries  in  his  own  perfidious  schemes,  to  the  rejection 
of  all  good  company,  and  in  contempt  of  all  safe  counsel,  was  a 
scene  that  might  well  dishearten  those  who  had  placed  him  there. 
To  behold  him  using  all  the  power  of  his  high  and  influential  po- 
sition, to  subvert  the  aims  of  those  who  had  installed  him  in  it, 
and  to  bar  the  path  to  the  recovery  of  their  rights,  was  enough  to 
try  the  virtue  of  martyrs.  But  in  the  face  of  all  these  discourage- 
ments, and  against  all  these  formidable  obstacles,  they  roused 
themselves  to  exertion  once  more,  and  will  doubtless  do  it  again, 
and  again,  till  their  objects  are  achieved.  That  so  much  vice 
should  not  break  down  the  political  fabric  of  the  country,  is  proof 
of  its  strength  ;  and  that  a  party  should  be  able  to  bear  up  against 
such  assaults,  and  press  onward,  is  sufficient  evidence  of  the  con- 
servative energy  of  their  principles. 

The  check  that  has  been  given  by  these  means,  to  the  onward 
march  of  the  country  to  wealth,  greatness,  and  honor,  is  a  problem 
which  very  innocently  and  naturally  offers  itself  in  a  train  of  re- 
flections arising  out  of  the  history  that  has  been  gone  over  in 
this  work.  As  events  have  occurred,  providentially,  it  is  impos- 
sible not  to  think  of  the  results  that  were  contingent  on  the  action 
of  the  Harrisburg  convention,  in  December,  1839,  and  of  the 
responsibility  of  those  who  disappointed  the  wishes  of  the  party 
there  represented.  If  those  wishes  had  been  regarded,  it  is  easy 
to  see,  that  the  party  which  triumphed  in  1840,  would  have  tri- 
umphed for  an  age — for  ever,  if  they  had  continued  to  prove  them- 
selves worthy  of  it.  Whereas,  by  that  event,  controlled  as  it  was, 
a  long  agony  still  awaits  the  disappointed,  and  no  one  can  tell  what 
will  be  the  end  of  it ! 

The  government  and  institutions  of  the  United  States  are  an 
eventful  experiment  in  the  progress  of  political  society.  Whether 
it  shall  eventually  realize  or  disappoint  the  hopes  of  the  lovers  and 
advocates  of  freedom  throughout  the  world,  will  depend  on  the 
maintenance  and  continued  application  of  those  great  principles  on 


488  REFLECTIONS. 

which  the  government  was  founded,  and  which  are  so  distinctly- 
defined  in  the  fundamental  law.  That  the  fabric  has  been  dis- 
turbed, and  in  some  measure  shaken,  within  the  last  quarter  of  the 
term  of  its  existence,  is  sufficiently  manifest.  But,  if  the  apparent 
cause,  which  has  been  made  prominent  in  these  volumes,  is  one 
of  those  accidents  of  history  which  rarely  occur,  it  may  be  hoped 
that  the  republic  will  recover  from  the  shock,  and  live  for  ever. 


INDEX. 


N.  B. — The  volumes  are  indicated  by  the  numeral  letters,  i.  and  ii. ;  and  the 
pages  by  the  figures. 

A. 

Abolition,  political,  in  the  free  states,  its  character,  and  effects,  i.  192-209. 

Adams,  Hon.  J.  Q.,  his  party  for  General  Jackson,  i.  289 ;  the  plurality  principle 
in  his  favor  in  the  presidential  election  of  1824,  i.  290-293  ;  his  evidence  on 
conspiracy,  i.  391. 

Agriculture,  statistics  on,  ii.  302;  protection,  as  it  affects  agriculture,  ii.  313,  et 
seq. 

Allen,  Senator,  of  Ohio,  chooses  "  between  two  evils,"  i.  119. 

Ambrister  and  Arbuthnot,  action  of  Congress  on  their  execution  by  Gen.  Jackson, 
i.  252. 

American  system  defined,  i.  428. 

American  Institute,  extracts  from  documents  of,  ii.  319-321. 

Anderson,  J.  M.,  evidence  on  conspiracy  (ofiicial),  i.  391. 

Ashland,  i.  42. 

Assumption  of  state  debts,  i.  475. 

Author — his  position,  i.  5-13,  and  ii.  3,  4 ;  can  not  please  all,  i.  7,  8 ;  as  biogra- 
pher, and  historian,  i.  8;  his  position  on  the  great  conspiracy,  i.  9;  his  reasons 
for  confining  himself  to  Mr.  Clay's  personal  history  and  career,  i.  10,  11,  ii.  3, 
4;  his  general  plan,  i.  12. 

B. 

Balance  of  trade,  ii.  165,  166',  317,  319,  320;  aggregate  of  balance  against  the 

United  Stales,  from  first  to  last,  ii.  323. 
Barbour,  Mrs.  Lucy,  her  efforts  to  honor  Mr.  Clay,  ii.  452. 
Baldwin,  Mr.  Justice,  his  evidence  to  Mr.  Clay's  efforts  on  the  tariff  bill  of  1820, 

ii.  146. 
Bankers,  the  Missouri,  made  a  great  discovery,  i.  120. 
Bargain,  Mr.  Clay  proposed  one,  i.  108. 

Bank,  U.  S.,  constitutionality,  decision  of  supreme  court,  Mr.  Clay  counsel,  i.  81. 
Bank,  Commonwealth  of  Kentucky,  case  in  U.  S.  court,  Mr.  Clay  counsel,  i.  81. 
Barringer,  D.  L.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy  (official),  i.  391. 
Barbour,  Hon.  James,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  382. 
Bartley,  Hon.  M.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  378. 
Beecher,  Hon.  P.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  377. 
Benning,  editor  Kentucky  Gazette,  killed  by  Charles  Wickliffe,  trial,  i.  90-93. 


490  INDEX. 

Bennet,  Mr.  Isaac,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  406. 

Benton,  Hon.  T.  H.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  384;  the  non  sequiiur,  i. 

319. 
Beverley,  Carter,  his  Fayettevijle  letter,  i.  320;  his  letter  1o  Duff  Green,  i.  329; 
his  letters  to  Mr.  Zane,  i.  329,  330 ;  his  recantation,  i.  395. 

Bolivar,  correspondence  with  Mr.  Clay,  i.  244,  245. 

Boyd,  Hon.  Lynn,  his  concession  of  Mr.  Clay's  innocence,  i.  425;  the  non  sequilur, 
i.  319. 

Bouligny,  Hon.  D.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  382. 

Blair,  F.  P.,  editor  Globe,  controversy  with  S.  D.  Gouverneur,  Esq.,  about  Gen. 
Jackson  and  Mr.  Monroe,  i.  254-257. 

Braddock,  John,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  383. 

Brent,  Hon.  Wm.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  299,  381. 

British  orders  in  council,  i.  159. 

Brougham,  Lord,  his  policy  for  the  United  Stales,  ii.  169;  his  sketch  of  British 
taxation,  ii.  308,  309. 

Buchanan,  Mr.,  General  Jackson's  witness,  i.  351-373  ;  his  letter  to  the  Lancas- 
ter Journal,  i.  352 ;  his  letters  to  U.  S.  Telegraph,  i.  358,  359 ;  his  evidence 
considered,  i.  353-373  ;  his  overture  to  Mr.  Clay,  i.  418  ;  his  speech  (hypothet- 
ical), to  "a  man  of  mettle,"  i.  123;  his  theory  of  the  wages  of  labor,  ii.  49,  ei 
seq. ;   the  non  sequitur,  i.  319. 

Burr,  Aaron,  Mr.  Clay  defends  him,  i.  87,  88  ;  Mr.  Clay  finds  him  out,  and  refuses 
to  shake  hands,  i.  89 ;  his  end,  i.  89,  90. 

Buckner,  Hon.  R.  A.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  380. 

C. 

Calhoun,  Hon.  John  C,  gave  the  name  of  "Fox"  to  Mr.  Van  Buren,andwas  the 
"endorser"  of  the  sub-treasury,  i.  116;  was  a  whig,  but  went  off,  i.  117;  was 
Mr.  Clay's  "  master,"  and  had  put  him  "  flat  on  his  back,"  but  Mr.  Clay  would 
not  "  own  him  for  a  slave,"  i.  117 ;  his  price  for  South  Carolina,  i.  119  ;  his  Dr. 
Sangrado  practice,  i.  121;  influence  of  his  quarrel  with  General  Jackson  on 
nullification,  ii.  214,  215. 

Carey,  Matthew,  and  others,  letter  to  Mr.  Clay,  with  his  reply,  ii,  337,  338. 

Call,  General,  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  383. 

Castlereagh,  Lord,  Mr.  Clay  dines  with  him,  i.  98. 

Carbuncle,  not  approved,  i.  112. 

Canning,  Mr.,  British  prime  minister,  his  claims  to  have  given  freedom  to  South 
America,  i.  211,  249  ;  his  death  stops  negotiation  of  a  commercial  treaty  under 
J.  Q.  Adams,  ii.  144. 

Chatham,  Lord,  his  policy  for  the  colonies,  ii.  169. 

Clay,  Henry,  his  position  in  history,  i.  17;  his  birth  and  parentage,  i.  17;  his 
family  history,  i.  17,  18;  school-house  and  "  mill-boy  of  the  slashes,"  i.  19; 
graduated  under  Peter  Deacon,  i.  19;  goes  to  Richmond  an  apprentice  to  Rich- 
ard Denjiy,  i.  19;  is  transferred  to  the  office  of  the  Virginia  Court  of  Chancery, 
i.  20;  his  character  there,  i.  20;  attracts  the  attention  of  Chancellor  Wythe, 
and  becomes  his  amanuensis,  i.  21 ;  his  education  not  defective,  i.  22,  23  ;  the 
star  of  the  rhetorical  society,  i.  25;  purity  of  his  character,  i.  25,26;  cherished 
and  patronized  by  eminent  men,  i.  26 ;  removal  of  his  mother  and  family  to  Ken- 
tucky— letter  from  his  mother,  i.  26,  27;  student  at  law  with  Attorney  General 
Brooke,  and  admitted  to  practice,  24,  28;  a  universal  favorite  at  Richmond,  i. 
29  ;  removes  to  Kentucky  a  pennyless  young  man,  and  is  cherished  there,  i.  29, 
30;  marries — Mrs.  Clay's  family — their  children,  i.  31-33;  his  domestic  char- 
acter, i.  33,  34  ;  as  a  neighbor  and  citizen,  i.  35-37;  as  a  man  of  feeling,  i. 
37-42;  his  hospitality,  i.  43  ;  his  pecuniary  condition,  and  rescue  from  debt,  i. 


INDEX.  491 

43,  44 ;  his  moral  character,  i.  45-53  ;  his  religious  sentiments,  i.  53-57  ;  a 
favorite -with  children  and  youth,  i.  57-59;  his  person,  i.  60;  his  temperament, 
i.  61-63;  his  manners,  i.  63;  his  voice,  i.  63;  attributes  of  his  eloquence,  i. 
64-69 ;  examples  of  his  eloquence,  i.  69-76 ;  his  professional  career,  his  school 
of  preparation  and  qualifications,  his  success,  examples  in  several  civil  and 
criminal  causes,  i.  77-94;  his  blunder  in  a  debating  club,  i.  78. 

Mr.  Clay's  Wit  and  other  Brilliant  Quaiitiks,  i.  95-124;  Mr.  Clay  as 
a  politician,  i.  125-127;  as  a  statesman,  i.  127-130;  as  a  diplomatist,  i.  131- 
140  ;  his  congressional  career,  i.  140-142  ;  his  character  as  speaker  of  the  house, 
and  as  senator,  i.  141,  142;  his  part  in  the  negotiations  of  the  peace  of  Ghent, 
i.  134-137;  his  instructions  to  the  representatives  to  the  Panama  congress,  i. 
137-140. 

His  Patriotism,  i.  143-158;  his  own  definition  of  patriotism,  i.  143,  144; 
his  mission  as  an  American  statesman,  providential,  i.  146;  his  early  study  of, 
and  devotion  to,  the  American  system,  as  the  only  true  national  independence, 
and  the  greatness  of  the  effort,  intellectual  and  moral,  i.  147-152;  his  patriot- 
ism tried  in  the  war  of  1812,  i.  152,  153;  in  the  Missouri  question,  i.  153  ;  in 
the  crisis  of  nullification,  i.  153,  154;  in  adjusting  General  Jackson's  quarrel 
with  the  French  government,  i.  154,  155  ;  in  acquiescing  in  the  decision  of  the 
Harrisburg  convention,  of  1839,  and  in  his  generous  support  of  General  Harri- 
son, i.  155,  156;  in  all  his  public  labors  as  a  statesman,  i.  157;  a  comparison 
between  Mr.  Clay  and  Washington,  i.  157,  158. 

Mr.  Clay  and  the  War  of  1812,  i.  159-1S5;  causes  of  the  war,  i.  159  ; 
preparations  for  the  war,  i.  160 ;  Mr.  Clay's  influence  over  Mr.  Madison,  i.  161  ; 
his  early  antipathy  toward  Great  Britain,  i.  161,  162;  declines  a  seat  in  the 
senate,  and  goes  into  the  house,  i.  162;  his  efforts  in  Congress  to  raise  ade- 
quate land  and  naval  foices,  i.  162-171  ;  Mr.  Madison  proposes  to  make  Mr. 
Clay  general-in-chief,  i.  172;  reverses  of  the  first  stages  of  the  war,  i.  172;  po- 
sition and  functions  of  a  statesman  in  war,  i.  173;  Mr.  Clay's  vindication  of  the 
war,  and  of  the  administration,  against  assailants,  i.  173-181 ;  the  character  and 
result  of  Mr.  Clay's  efforts  in  the  war  of  1812,  i.  182;  his  own  account  of  the 
treaty  of  Ghent,  i.  183,  184. 

Mr.  Clay  on  Domestic  Slavery,  i.  186-210;  distinction  between  his  feel- 
ings as  a  MAN,  and  his  principles  as  a  statesman,  in  regard  to  slavery,  i.  186, 
187;  his  efforts  in  behalf  African  colonization,  i.  188-192;  Mr.  Clay  an  eman- 
cipationist, i.  192;  political  abolition  in  the  free  states  arrested  the  tide  of 
emancipation  in  the  slave  states,  i.  193-209  :  Mr.  Clay's  speech  on  abolition  in 
1839,1.  194-207;  his  answer  to  Mr.  Mendenhall,  i.  197,  198— also,  207,  208; 
the  great  evil  of  political  abolition  to  the  cause  of  emancipation,  i.  209. 

Mr.  Clay  the  Advocate  of  Universal  Freedom,  i.  210-251  ;  the  text  of 
his  principles,  ''I  have,"  &c.,  i.  210;  his  claim  as  the  earliest  and  successful 
advocate  of  South  American  independence,  supported  by  a  letter  from  the  Hon. 
Richard  Rush,  i.  211  ;  Mr.  Canning's  claim,  i.  211,  212;  Mr.  Clay's  efforts  in 
Congress  in  behalf  of  the  South  American  states,  in  1817,  i.  212-216;  in  1818, 
i.  216-236;  in  1819,  i.  236,  237;  in  1820,  i.  237-240;  carried  in  1822,  i.  244; 
Mr.  Monroe  and  his  administration  opposed  it,  i.  235,  236,  239,  240 ;  the  triumph, 
i.  242-244  ;  correspondence  between  Bolivar  and  Mr.  Clay,  i.  244,  245  ;  Mr. 
Clay  the  advocate  of  Greece,  i.  246,  249. 

The  Cause  of  Great  Effects. — Mr.  Clay's  first  offence  to  General  Jack- 
son, i.  252-275;  action  of  Congress  on  the  Seminole  campaign,  i.  252,  253  ;  the 
question  of  General  Jackson's  responsibility  in  that  campaign,  i.  253-257  ;  cab- 
inet action,  secret  history,  on  the  subject,  i.  257,  258;  Mr.  Clay's  views  of 
the  treaty  of  Fort  Jackson,  i.  263 ;  Mr.  Adams's  position,  i.  264 ;  hanging  the 
Indian  chiefs,  and  execution  of  Arbuthnot  and  Ambrister,  i.  266-270 ;  taking 


492  INDEX. 

the  Spanish  posts,  i.  271,  272;  Mr.  Clay's  reply  to  Mr.  Holmes,  i.  272,  273  ; 
failure  of  the  resolution  to  disapprove,  i.  275. 

Mr.  Clay  on  the  Missouri  Question,  and  Mr.  Clay's  efforts  thereon,  i.  276- 
286;  reasons  of  the  opposing  parties,  i.  276,  277;  beginning,  i.  277;  Mr.  Tay- 
lor's action,  i.  278  ;  Mr.  Clay's  arrival  and  first  proposal,  i.  281,  282;  its  fail- 
ure, i.  282  ;  turbulent  scene  of  counting  the  electoral  votes,  i.  283;  Mr.  Ran- 
dolph's resolutions,  i.  284;  Mr.  Clay's  second  proposal,  i.  285;  its  success, 
i.  286. 

Mr.  Clay  on  Internal  Improvements,  i.  428-452;  definition  of  the  Amer- 
ican system,  i.  428;  objects  of  internal  improvement,  ib. ;  the  great  barrier,  i. 
429  ;  the  Cumberland  road,  i.  430  ;  efl'ects  of  Mr.  Clay's  influence  on  internal 
improvements,  i.  430,  431 ;  Mr.  Clay's  great  design  modified  by  events,  i.  451  ; 
obstacles  from  executive  scruples,  i.  432;  the  constitutional  question,  i.  433; 
Mr.  Clay's  resolution  that  Congress  had  the  power  for  internal  improvement, 
i.  434,  et  seq. ;  resolutions  of  '98,  i.  438 ;  the  principle  of  "  postroads," 
ib. ;  the  language  of  the  constitution,  "  necessary  and  proper,"  i.  439,  ct  seq. ; 
military  roads,  i.  440,  et  seq.;  "state-rights,"  i.  442;  Mr,  Clay's  examina- 
tion of  the  views  of  Mr.  Madison,  Mr.  Monroe,  and  Mr.  Monroe's  prac/ice,  i. 
444-448 ;  Mr.  Clay's  resolution  passed,  i.  450 ;  Mr.  Jefl'erson's  views  on  the 
general  question  in  1805,  i.  450  ;  General  Jackson's,  in  1830,  i.  451 ;  triumph 
and  results  of  Mr.  Clay's  policy,  i.  452. 

Mr.  Clay's  Public  Land  Policy,  i.  453-484;  Mr.  Clay's  report  of  1832,  i. 
453;  importance  of  the  subject,  i.  456;  Mr.  Clay's  report  of  1832  imposed 
upon  him  with  bad  design,  i.  460,  et  seq.;  the  object  defeated,  i.  463;  the 
counter  report,  i.  464,  et  seq. ;  Mr.  Clay's  bill  passed,  and  pocketed  by  the 
president,  i.  465 ;  Mr.  Clay's  remarks,  ib.,  e<  seq.;  second  land  bill  of  1835, 
passed  in  senate,  failed  in  the  house,  i.  467,  468;  veto  of  Mr.  Tyler,  i.  468; 
examination  of  the  whole  subject,  with  statistics,  and  tables,  i.  468-481  ;  state 
debts,  i.  482 ;  remarks,  i.  483,  484. 

Mr.  Clay's  Times,  Political  Character  of,  i.  485-504;  Mr.  Clay  a  Jef- 
fersonian  demociat,  i.  485 ;  importance  of  names  in  politics,  i.  485,  et  seq.; 
rise  of  Jeffersonian  democracy,  i.  486;  Mr.  Clay's  claims  as  a  disciple  of  this 
school,  and  his  denial  of  democracy  to  his  opponents,  i.  487,  et  seq. ;  Amer- 
ican love  of  democracy,  i.  490;  the  Jeffersonian  and  Madisonian  era,  i.  491  ; 
the  Jackson  era — its  regal  character,  i.  492  ;  Mr.  Clay's  views  of  it,  i.  493-503  ; 
spirit  of  '76,  i.  503. 

Mr.  Clay  on  the  Currency,  ii.  9-67 ;  Mr.  Clay's  views  of  a  national  bank 
in  1811,  ii.  9,  10;  reasons  of  change,  ii.  10-13  ;  the  change,  no  change,  ii.  10: 
his  cow  and  turkey  story,  ii.  13;  the  constitutional  question,  ii.  11,  et  seq.; 
"  necessary  and  proper,"  ii.  14  ;  which  party  passed  the  bank  of  1816,  ii.  14; 
not  banks,  but  protection,  that  supplies  money,  ii.  15 ;  losses  to  the  country  by 
state  banks,  ii.  16  ;  false  reasons  alleged  by  General  Jackson  for  his  bank  veto, 
ii.  16-18;  General  Jackson's  rule  of  interpreting  the  constitution,  ii.  19;  Mr. 
Clay's  sum  of  public  evils,  in  1832,  ii.  20;  motives  out  of  sight,  and  revolution 
meditated,  ii.  20  :  iron  will  of  General  Jackson,  ii.  21  ;  Mr.  Van  Buren's  bank- 
ing operations  in  New  York — he  don't  like  banks,  but  turns  out  a  heap,  ii.  21- 
22;  an  hj'pothesis,  with  good  reasons,  showing  why  General  Jackson  turned 
asainst  the  bank,  ii.  24;  a  fighting  character,  ii.  25;  an  intermediate  plan,  ii. 
26 ;  down  with  internal  improvement,  next  the  bank,  then  the  tariff,  ib. ;  re- 
sults, ii.  26-28. 

Mr.  Clay's  Eastern  Tour  of  1833,  ii.  333-354;  his  letter  to  Judsje  Brooke, 
announcing  the  project  of  this  journey,  ii.  333  ;  his  reception  at  Baltimore,  with 
correspondence,  ii.  334,  335;  addressed  by  citizens  of  Wilmington,  Del.,  and 
his  reply,  ii.  335,  336 ;  journey  to  and  reception   at  Philadelphia,  with  corres- 


INDEX.  493 

pondence,  ii.  336-338 ;  arrives  at  New  York,  reception,  and  correspondence,  ii. 
339,  340;  generous  tribute  from  an  opponent,  ii.  340;  departure  from  New 
Yorii,  and  passage  to  Boston,  via  Newport  and  Providence,  incidents,  and  cor- 
respondence, ii.  340,  341 ;  reception  at  Boston,  and  correspondence,  ii.  341-344  ; 
visit  to  Charlestown  and  Bunker  hill,  Mr.  Everett's  address  at  Bunker  hill,  and 
Mr.  Clay's  reply,  ii.  344,  345  ;  incidents,  ii.  345;  reception  at  Faneuilhall,  Mr. 
Sullivan's  address,  Mr.  Clay's  reply,  ii.  345-347  ;  visit  to  Lowell,  ii.  347  ;  a 
straw  bonnet  presented  to  Mrs.  Clay  by  Mr.  Lynde,  correspondence,  ii.  348 ; 
Mr.  Clay's  visit  to  Lynn,  Danvers,  and  Salem,  with  addresses  and  honors,  ii.  348 
-350;  relative  position  of  agriculture  and  manufactures,  ii.  350  ;  his  visit  and 
reception  at  Worcester,  Hartford,  Springfield,  Northampton,  Troy,  and  Albany, 
ii.  351-353;  his  reception  at  Newark,  N.  J.,  orders  a  carriage,  and  is  obliged 
to  take  one  as  a  compliment,  ii.  353  ;  his  return  to  Washington,  and  letter  to 
Judge  Brooke,  ib. ;  his  disinterestedness,  ii.  354. 

Mr.  Clay  and  the  Twenty-Seventh  Congress,  ii.  355-403 ;  position  of 
that  Congress,  ib. ;  repeal  of  the  sub-treasury,  and  veto  of  the  bank,  ii.  358 ; 
Mr.  Clay's  remarks  on  the  veto,  and  examination  of  Mr.  Tyler's  objections,  ii. 
358-369  ;  Mr.  Clay's  compromise  in  the  bank  bill,  ii.  366,  367 ;  Mr.  Rives's 
reply,  ii.  369;  Mr.  Clay's  rejoinder,  ii.  369-374;  "  the  corporal's  guard,"  their 
services,  and  reward,  ii.  371,  372;  overpowering  efl'ectof  Mr.  Clay's  rejoinder 
to  Mr.  Rives,  ii.  375;  the  tariff  of  1842,  the  great  measure  of  the  twenty-sev- 
enth Congress,  ii.  376 ;  the  bankrupt  law,  a  patriotic,  but  unpopular  measure, 
ib. ;  the  hydra-heads  of  regal  power,  up  again,  ii.  377 ;  Mr.  Clay  still  at  his 
post,  ib. ;  propounds  his  system  of  reform  and  retrenchment,  ib. ;  his  position, 
ii.  378 ;  his  revenue  system,  ii.  378,  379 ;  an  incidental  notice  of  his  service  for 
the  gold  and  silver  smiths,  and  their  gratitude,  ii.  379  ;  a  misrepresentation  by 
political  opponents  chastised,  ii.  380  ;  expenses  of  Mr.  Van  Buren's  administra- 
tion, ii.  381 ;  the  prospective  bankruptcy  of  the  nation  in  1840,  and  the  financial 
difficulties  impending,  ii.  381-383;  Mr.  Clay's  estimates  for  wants  of  govern- 
ment, ii.  383  ;  no  flowers  for  fair  ladies,  ib. ;  the  statesman  of  forty  years'  ser- 
vice, ii.  384 ;  the  ad-valorem  mode  of  assessing  duties,  ib. ;  the  land  revenue, 
ii.  385 ;  retrenchment,  ib. ;  prodigal  habits  of  the  government,  ii.  385,  386 ; 
diplomatic  relations  too  many,  ii.  386,  387;  abuses  of  the  franking  privilege,  ii. 
387 ;  invocation  of  the  aid  of  executive  departments  (useless),  ib. ;  the  acting 
president  in  the  way  of  reform,  ii.  388;  drain  of  the  precious  metals  to  foreign 
parts,  ii.  389  ;  Gen.  Hayne's  predictions  falsified,  ii.  390 ;  the  secret  of  all  the 
difficulties,  ii.  390,  391  ;  Mr.  Clay's  hopes,  ii.  393;  character  of  the  twenty- 
seventh  Congress,  ii.  393;  object  of  the  political  revolution  of  1840,  ii.  394; 
aims  of  the  then  existing  regime,  sub-treasury,  and  new  plan  for  a  standing 
army,  ii.  394,  395  ;  Mr.  Van  Buren's  approval  of  this  plan,  ii.  395  ;  labors  of 
the  twenty-seventh  Congress,  reduction  of  public  expenditures,  and  the  dis- 
closures of  its  investigating  committees,  ii.  395-403 ;  what  that  Congress  in- 
herited, and  what  it  bequeathed  to  the  country,  ii.  403. 

Mr.  Clay's  Resignation  and  Valedictory  Address,  ii.  404-411 ;  his  letter 
of  resignation  to  the  general  assembly  of  Kentucky,  ii.  404 ;  review  of  his  pub- 
lic life,  ii.  405;  his  valedictory  to  the  senate  of  the  United  States,  ii.  405-410; 
character  and  dignity  of  the  United  Slates  senate,  ii.  405 ;  Mr.  Clay's  hopes,  on 
Gen.  Harrison's  accession,  blasted  in  his  successor,  ii.  406  ;  a  glance  at  the  past, 
and  a  religious  reference  of  his  motives,  ii.  406,  407  ;  he  had  not  been  without 
enemies,  but  had  many  friends,  and  had  been  gallantly  sustained  by  them,  and 
his  adopted  commonwealth,  ii.  407 ;  his  own  review  of  his  life,  ii.  407,  408 ; 
called  "  a  dictator,"  and,  with  his  own  definition,  was  willing  to  wear  it,  ii.  408, 
409 ;  confesses  the  ardor  of  his  temperament,  forgives  all,  and  hopes  to  be  for- 
given, ii.  409  ;  presents  his  successor,  the  Hon.  J.  J.  Crittenden,  to  the  senate. 


494 


INDEX. 


and  takes  his  final  leave,  ii.  410;  the  scene  that  followed,  and  a  reflection  on 
the  exit  of  such  a  man  from  public  life,  ii.  411. 

Mk.  Clay  in  Retirement,  ii.  412-422;   the  Lexington  barbecue,  and  toast 
in  honor  of  the  guest,  ii.  412;  Mr.  Clay's  remarks,  ii.  412,  el  seq. ;   his  personal 
relations  to  his  audience,  and  people  of  Kentucky,  ii,  413,  414;  never  changed 
his  opinion  on  a  public  question  but  once,  ii.  414,  415;  thinks  he  made  a  mis- 
take in  accepting  the  secretaryship  under  Mr.  Adams— over-estimated  general 
intelligence— an  anecdote  in  illustration,  ii.  415-417;  has  been  accused  of  am- 
bition— confesses  he  has  desired  approbation,  ii.  417;   considers  the  state  of  the 
country,  not  then  auspicious,  and  notices  the  causes,  ii.  418-420;  calls  on  his 
fellow-citizens  "  not  to  give  up  the  ship,"  but  to  awake  to  renewed  exertion,  ii. 
421  ;  the  hoary  statesman  in  private  life,  ib. ;   Mr.  Clay  a   part  of  the  history 
of  the  country,  ii.  422. 
Mr.  Clay,   public  property,  i.  5;  his  card  in  National  Intelligencer,  Jan.  31, 
1825,  i.  297;   his  appeal  to  the  house  of  representatives,  i.  301  ;  his  address  to 
the  public,  June  29,  1827,  i.  330  ;  his  address  to  the  public,  December,  1827,  i. 
359  ;  his  position  in  relation  to  the  charge,  i.  375,  376  ;  letters  to  Judge  Brooke, 
i.  385,  386,  393,  394;   the  Genito  letter,  i.  387;   his  letter  to  Geo.  McClure,  i. 
387;   strategy  of  the  campaign  of  1824  toward  Mr.  Clay,  i.  359;  Mr.  Kremer  a 
tool— his  character,  ib. ;  his  letter  to  the  Columbian  Observer,  probably  written 
by  Mr.  Eaton,  with   Gen.  Jackson's  knowledge,  ib. ;   Mr.  Eaton  convicted  of 
having  written  Mr.  Kremer's  card,  i.  360;   internal  evidence  of  the  authorship 
of  the  letter  to  the  Columbian  Observer,  ib. ;  first  acquaintance  between  Mr. 
Clay  and  Gen.  Jackson,  i.  361  ;   state  of  feeling  between  them  after  Mr.  Clay's 
speech  on  the  Seminole  campaign,  ib. ;   Gen.  Jackson's  slight  of  Mr.  Clay,  at 
Lebanon,  Ky.,  ib. ;  attempt  of  Gen.  Jackson's  friends  to  make  up,  in  1823,  by 
getting  Mr.  Clay  and  Gen.  Jackson   together,  at  a  dinner  at  Washington,  ib. ; 
politeness  of  Gen.  Jackson  and  Mr.  Eaton  to  Mr.  Clay,  on  this  occasion,  ib. ; 
Mr.  Clay  did  not  write  to  Gen.  Jackson,  to  ask  his  company  to  Washinston  in 
the  fall  of  1824,  i.  362;  Mr.  Clay  and  Gen.  Jackson  met  at  dinner  at  Baron 
Tuyll's,  Dec.  24,  1824,  ib. ;  Mr.  Clay's  feeling  regarding  the  slight  at  Lebanon, 
ib. ;  the  assiduous  attentions  of  Gen.  Jackson's  friends  to  Mr.  Clay,  at  the  first 
meeting  of  Congress,  December,  1824,  i.  363;  the  transition  to  intimidation,  ib. 
Mr.  Clay's  letters  touching  the  election  of  Mr.  Adams,  i.  385,  386,  387,  393, 
394, 395. 
Clayton,  Hon.  J.  M.,  his  account  of  the  compromise,  ii.  252-259. 
Compromise  Tariff,  ii.  213-264;  a  private  letter  from  Mr.  Clay  on  public  pol- 
icy, ii.  213;   quarrel  between  General  Jackson   and  Mr.  Calhoun,  ii.  214;  its 
eff'ect  in  precipitating  nullification,  ii.  215;  Mr.  Clay  deprecates  nullification, 
ib.,  et  seq. ;  danger  to  the  Union,  not  in  the  American  system,  but  in  its  aban- 
donment, ii.  216;  growth  and  extension  of  the  protective  policy,  ii.  217;  Mr. 
Clay  supported   it   for  the  poor,  ib. ;  it  benefits  all,  ii.  218  ;  tariff"  of  1832,  ib. ; 
nullification  declared  by  South  Carolina,  ib. ;   proclamation  by  the  president,  ib. ; 
followed  by  Gov.  Hayne's,  ib. ;  position  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  ii.  219  ;  Mr.  Clay's 
views  of  this  crisis,  in  a  private  letter,  ib.  ;   Gen.  Jackson  bent  on  putting  down 
Mr.  Calhoun  and  the  tariff',  ib. ;  Mr.  Clay  brings  forward  the  compromise,  ii. 
220,  et  seq. ;  its  plan,  ii.  223 ;  home  valuation,  ii.  224  ;  character  of  the  bill, 
ib. ;   explained  by  Mr.   Clay,  ii.  224,  225;  consummate  statesmanship  of  Mr. 
Clay,  ii.  225;  triumph  of  the   bill,  ii.  225,  226  ;  the  difficulties  it  had  to  en- 
counter between  friends  and  foes,  ii.  226,  227  ;   executive  violations  of  the  com- 
promise, ii.  229;  protection  not  abandoned,  ii.  230,  231  ;   South  Carolina  sus- 
pends her  ordinance,  ii.  231 ;  Mr.  Clay  gives  her  some  advice,  ib.,  e/  seq.;  Mr. 
Clay's   appeal  to  all,  ii.  233;  his  letter  to  Judge  Brooke  on  the  subject,  ib.; 
his    reply    to    Mr.  Webster,  ii.  234,  et  seq. ;  one  object  of  the  tariff's  of  1816, 


INDEX.  495 

1824,  and  1828,  to  pay  national  debt,ii.  237;  Mr.  Clay's  motives,  ii.  238;  this 
measure  always  sustained,  ii.  239;  though  not  without  opposition,  ii.  240;  the 
anti-protection  symptoms  and  tendency  of  the  time,  ib.  ;  Mr.  Clay's  risk,  ii. 
241  ;  sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof,  ii.  242;  theory  of  protection, 
as  it  contemplates  a  termination,  considered  in  the  light  of  the  ne'n^doctrine, 
ii.  244-247  ;  the  folly  of  defying  the  worst,  ii.  247 ;  Mr.  Clay  accused  of  ambi- 
tion, and  confesses  to  it,  ii.  248;  the  crisis  stated,  ii.  249,  250  ;  a  prop  of  the 
compromise  knocked  away  by  Gen.  Jackson,  ii.  250,  251  ;  other  props  destroyed, 
ib.  ;  Mr.  Clay  "flat  on  his  back,"  ii.  25],  252;  the  Hon.  John  M.  Clayton's 
account  of  the  compromise,  ii.  252-259;  Mr.  Dallas's  motion,  ii.  253;  Mr. 
Polk's  statement,  ii.  258  ;  Mr.  Clay's  letter  to  Mr.  Clayton,  in  1844,  ii.  259  ; 
aims  of  the  compromise  impaired  by  its  administration,  ii.  261 ;  Mr.  Randolph's 
reliance  on  Mr.  Clay  in  this  crisis,  ii.  263. 

Clay,  Henry,  Jr.,  birth,  i.  33  ;  at  West  Point,  i.  48  ;  correspondence  with  his  fa- 
ther, i.  49. 

Compensation  bill,  Mr.  Clay  among  the  Kentucky  hunters,  electioneering,  i.  99. 

Conspiracy,  the  Great,  i.  287-427  ;  reason  for  calling  it  so,  i.  287 ;  Gen.  Jack- 
son's renewal  of  the  charge,  in  1844,  i.  287,  288 ;  Mr.  Clay's  statement  of  the 
Charge,  i.  288,  289;  claims  of  private  and  public  justice,  i.  289;  Mr.  J.  Q. 
Adams's  8th  of  January  party  in  honor  of  General  Jackson,  and  its  effect,  i. 
289  ;  claim  of  General  Jackson  and  his  friends  to  plurality  of  votes,  the  princi- 
ple decided  in  favor  of  Mr.  Adams,  i.  290-293  ;  delicacy  of  Mr.  Clay's  position 
in  the  presidential  election,  in  the  house  of  representatives,  1825,  i.  293;  the 
practices  on  him  by  the  Jackson  party,  i.  294,  295 ;  Mr.  Kremer's  letter  to  the 
Columbian  Observer,  i.  295;  the  attempts  to  intimidate  Mr.  Clay,  i.  297 ;  no 
belief  in  the  charge  at  Washington — made  for  distance,  i.  296;  Mr.  Clay's  card, 
i.  297 ;  his  apology  for  one  expression  in  it,  298 ;  Mr.  Kremer's  card,  ib. ;  Mr. 
Kremer's  character,  i.  299 ;  Major  Eaton  suspected  as  the  author  of  Mr.  Kre- 
mer's card,  i.  300;  Mr.  Clay's  appeal  to  the  house,  i.  301 ;  Mr.  Forsyth's  res- 
olution for  a  committee  of  investigation,  their  appointment,  i.  303;  Mr.  Kremer 
fathers  the  charge  in  the  house,  ib.  ;  remarks  of  Mr.  Forsyth,  i.  304;  of  Mr. 
Wright,  ib. ;  of  Mr.  Storrs,  i.  305  ;  report  of  the  committee,  i.  306  ;  Mr.  Ki'e- 
mer's  letter  of  decline  to  the  committee,  i.  307;  analysis  of  the  letter,  i.  308- 
312;  the  real  author  of  this  letter  suspected — proofs,  i.  315:  position  of  the 
parties  at  the  end  of  the  first  stage,  i.  317;  a  non  sequitur  argument  by  Mr. 
Buchanan,  Mr.  Benton,  and  others,  to  prove  the  charge  against  Mr.  Clay,  i. 
319,  320;  the  Fayetteville  letter,  i.  320  ;  notices  of  the  press,  i.  323;  General 
Jackson's  letter  to  Carter  Beverley,  of  June  6,  1827,  i.  324;  how  it  got  into 
the  hands  of  Mr.  Clay,  i.  329 ;  published  by  Mr.  Clay,  with  an  address  from 
him  to  the  public,  i.  330 ;  also  published  by  Mr.  Beverley,  i.  329 ;  General 
Jackson's  address  to  the  public,  of  July  18,  1827,  i.  332-337;  examination  of 
this  address,  i.  337-349  ;  Mr.  Buchanan's  letter  to  the  Lancaster  Journal,  i. 
352;  P.  S.  Markley,  in  reply  to  Mr.  Buchanan,  i.  355;  Major  Eaton's  letter  to 
the  public,  i.  358 ;  Mr.  Buchanan's  letters  to  the  editor  of  the  United  States 
Telegraph,  i.  359;  Mr.  Clay's  address  to  the  public,  December,  1827,  ib. ;  re- 
view of  these  documents,  i.  353-373  ;  proof  of  a  negative,  i.  374-403 ;  array 
of  the  witnesses,  i.  377-397;  examination  of  their  evidence,  i.  397-402;  wit- 
nesses on  a  question  of  veracity,  i.  404-408;  what  they  prove,!.  411-413  ;  the 
denouement,  Mr.  Buchanan  addresses  Mr.  Clay,  and  Gen.  Houston  addresses 
Mr.  Sloane,  friend  of  Mr.  Clay,  both  on  the  same  errand,  i.  418-420;  relative 
position  of  Gen.  Jackson  and  his  friends,  in  the  outset,  i,  421,  422;  their  rela- 
tive position  when  each  got  into  difliculty,  1,422-424;  last  attempt  by  Mr. 
Lynn  Boyd,  in  1844,  i.  424 ;  what  it  comes  to,  i.  425 ;  crime  and  consequences 
of  the  plot,  i.  425-427. 


496  INDEX. 

Codfish,  Mr.  Clay  has  no  taste  for  it,  i.  110. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  and  Gen.  Jackson,  i.  Ill,  also  ii.  84. 

Corsets,  Mr.  Secretary  Taney  in,  i.  112. 

Colonial  system,  British,  its  eflects  on  American  rights,  negotiations,  and  legisla- 
tion, ii.  143,  144. 

Commercial  treaties,  effect  of,  ii.  145. 

Colonization,  African,  Mr.  Clay's  eflbrts  in  its  behalf,  i.  188-192. 

Confederation,  character  of,  i.  469,  et  seq. 

"  Corporal's  Guard,"  ii.  371,  372. 

Craig,  Sir  James,  governor  of  Canada,  his  connexion  with  John  Henry,  i.  160. 

Crawford,  Wm.  H.,  his  letter  to  Mr.  Forsyth,  on  the  Jackson  and  Calhoun  con- 
troversy, i.  254  ;  his  letter  to  Mr.  Clay  about  the  "  bargain,"  i.  394 ;  evidence 
on  the  conspiracy,  i.  394 ;  candidate  for  the  presidency,  1824,  i.  290. 

Crime  and  consequences  of  the  plot,  i.  425. 

Crowninshield,  Mr.,  his  evidence  about  Mr.  Kremer,  i.  299. 

Crittenden,  Hon.  J.  J.,  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  382. 

Crowsdill,  Wm.,  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  405. 

Currenc)-,  ii.  9-67. 

Currency,  its  Philosophy,  ii.  61-67  ;  definitions  of  money  and  currency,  ii.  61 ; 
legislation  can  not  force  credit,  ii.  ib. ;  what  constitutes  the  value  of  gold 
and  silver,  ii.  62  ;  proportion  of  the  precious  metals  used  as  money,  ib. ; 
cause  of  scarcity  of  monej',  ib. ;  objects  and  uses  of  a  "lawful  tender,"  ib. ; 
not  the  only  constitutional  currency,  ii.  63 ;  an  exclusive  metallic  currency  im- 
practicable, ib. ;  system  of  banking  in  the  United  States,  ii.  64  ;  its  relation  to 
labor,  ib. ;  functions  of  currency  in  the  body  politic  illustrated,  ii.  64,  65 ;  effects 
of  perverting  its  functions,  ib. ;  losses  to  the  country  by  the  revulsion  of 
1837,  ii.  65-67. 

Cushing,  Caleb,  member  of  "  the  guard,"  his  rejection  as  nominee  for  secretary 
of  the  treasury,  and  mission  to  China,  ii.  371,  372. 

D. 

Dallas,  Geo.  M.,  in  for  a  bargain,  i.  115;  his  motion  in  the  senate  on  the  compro- 
mise, ii.  253. 

Davidson,  Hon.  Jas.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  381. 

Democratic  press,  about  Fayetteville  letter,  i.  323. 

Dedication,  i.  3. 

Denny,  Richard,  takes  Henry  Clay  as  an  apprenticCj  i.  19. 

Deacon,  Peter,  pedagogue  of  the  Slashes,  i.  18. 

Deposites,  Removal  of,  ii.  68-121  ;  the  constitution  and  laws  regarding  the 
national  treasury,  ii.  68,  69 ;  who  the  keepers  of  the  public  purse,  ib. ;  the 
secretary  of  the  treasury  an  agent  of  Congress,  not  of  the  executive,  ib. ;  re- 
ports to  Congress,  ii.  70  ;  the  principle  settled  by  a  decision  of  the  supreme 
court,  ii.  70,  71  ;  the  law,  ii.  71;  its  exposition,  ii.  72;  General  Jackson's  mani- 
festo, ib. ;  analysis  of  the  secretary's  report,  ii.  73,  74 ;  a  servant  above  his 
masters,  ii.  75 ;  airs  of  an  unrobed  official,  ib. ;  Mr.  Clay's  resolutions  on  the 
removal  of  the  deposites,  ii.  76 ;  history  of  the  removal,  ii.  76,  77 ;  the  position 
assumed  by  the  senate  a  high,  a  paramount  duty,  its  moral  effect,  ii.  77,  78;  ex- 
ordium of  Mr.  Clay's  speech,  announcing  a  revolution,  ii.  78  :  the  then  position 
of  affairs,  ii.  79;  violations  of  the  judiciary,  ib. ;  what  of  the  public  interests 
had  been  crushed,  general  despondency,  Mr.  Clay's  hortatory  counsels,  ii.  80: 
Patrick  Henry's  opinion,  ii.  81  ;  the  cabinet  meeting  of  the  18th  September, 
1833,  its  remarkable  character,  an  auto  dafe,  ii.  81-84 ;  Mr.  Clay's  remarks  on 
this  cabinet  meeting,  ii.  84-86 ;  Oliver  Cromwell  and  General  Jackson,  ii.  84, 
85 ;  Mr.  Secretary  Duane's  address  to  the  people  of  the  United  States,  and  his 


INDEX.  497 

correspondence  with  General  Jackson,  ii.  86-95  ;  Mr.  Taney  not  secretary,  ii. 
101.  102;  his  agency  a  violation  of  the  constitution,  ii.  102;  his  name  kept  back 
from  the  senate,  ib. ;  the  discretion  of  the  secretary  defined,  ii.  102,  103  ;  the 
mandatory  resolution  of  March  2,  1833,  ii.  103;  subterfuge  of  the  secretary, 
ib. ;  a  democrat  superseded  by  a  monarchist,  ii.  104  ;  a  mailre  d'hotel  and  scul- 
lions, ii.  105;  apology  for  errors  of  necessity,  ib. ;  logic  of  the  secretary,  ii. 
105,  et  seq.;  is  right  and  wrong,  ii.  106;  conscience  leans  one  way,  loyalty  an- 
other, ib. ;  strategy,  ii.  107;  jumping  to  conclusions,  ib.  ;  a  hangman  that  wants 
business,  ib. ;  usefulness  of  a  servant  that  knows  more  and  can  do  more  than 
his  masters,  ii.  108,  109;  "speculating,"  right  and  wrong,  ii.  109,  110;  morals 
of  the  secretary,  ii.  110;  a  labor-saving  official,  ib. ;  taking  care  of  "  the  inter- 
ests and  convenience  of  the  people,"  ii.  Ill;  a  parent  that  kills  his  own  off- 
spring, ii.  111-113;  nineteen  millions  of  currency  withdrawn  in  four  months, 
ii.  112;  consequences,  ii.  113;  self-defence  a  crime,  ib. ;  a  man  that  wont  die 
ought  to  be  killed,  ib. ;  "sufficient  evidence"  is  sufficient,  ii.  114;  a  false  posi- 
tion, ib. ;  abstractions  distilled,  ii.  114,  115;  are  most  potent,  ib.  ;  afraid  of 
truth,  ii.  1 15  ;  a  thing  that  is  and  is  not,  ib. ;  a  "  most  wonderful  financier,"  ii. 
116;  operations  of  a  modern  Turgot,  ii.  116,  117;  Mr.  Clay's  resolutions  re- 
duced to  one  and  passed,  ii.  118;  efli"ects  of  the  removal  of  the  deposites,  ii. 
118-120;  President  Washington's  respect  for  the  co-ordinate  power  of  the  sen- 
ate, ii.  121 ;  Mr.  Taney  nominated,  rejected,  and  made  chief  justice,  ib. 

De  Stael,  Madame,  and  Napoleon,  i.  26,  27 ;  Madame  De  Stael  and  Mr.  Clay  at 
Paris,  i.  97,  98. 

Disappointment,  the,  ii.  444-454;  the  agony  of  1840,  ii.  444;  discourage- 
ment of  the  people  after  the  apostacy  of  John  Tyler,  ib. ;  hopes  of  the  nation 
on  Mr.  Clay  in  1844,  ii.  445  ;  his  defeat  unexpected  to  all  parties,  ib. ;  extracts 
from  numerous  letters,  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  from  all  classes,  ex- 
pressive of  the  disappointment,  ii.  446-451 ;  Mrs.  Warner's  counterpane,  and 
lines  on  it,  ii.  451 ;  statue  for  Mr.  Clay  by  ladies  of  Virginia,  ii.  451-453  ;  hon- 
ors to  Mr.  Clay  by  whig  associations,  ii.  453-456. 

Drake,  Dr.,  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  388. 

Duane,  W.  J.,  his  correspondence  with  Gen.  Jackson,  ii.  86-95. 

Duralde,  Mr.,  Mr.  Clay's  son-in-law,  guillotined  by  President  Polk,  ii.  354., 

Duelling,  Mr.  Clay's  opinion  on,  i.  298. 

E. 

Election,  Presidential,  of  1844,  ii.  423-443 ;  death  of  Gen.  Harrison — apos- 
tacy of  John  Tyler,  ii.  423  ;  Mr.  Clay's  magnanimity  in  supporting  Gen.  Har- 
rison as  the  nominee  of  the  Harrisburg  convention,  ib. ;  rush  of  the  people,  after 
the  disappointment,  to  Mr.  Clay,  ii.  424;  his  early  nomination,  throughout  the 
country,  for  1844,  ib. ;  enthusiasm  and  hopes  of  the  Baltimore  whig  convention 
of  1844,  ib. ;  Mr.  Frelinghuysen,  ii.  425;  confidence  of  the  whig  party,  ib. ; 
causes  of  defeat,  ii.  425,  el  seq. ;  permanent  and  chief  cause,  party  names,  ii. 
426,  427 ;  the  Texas  question,  ii.  427 ;  political  letters  of  candidates,  ii.  427, 
428 ;  many  and  local  issues,  ii.  428 ;  driving  Mr.  Van  Buren  off  the  course, 
ii.  429  ;  executive  patronage,  ib. ;  Native  Americans,  ii.  430 ;  abolition  and  the 
mission  of  C.  M.  Clay,  ib. ;  defects  of  whig  organization,  ii.  430,  431;  betting 
on  elections,  ii.  431,  432;  election  frauds,  ii.  432,  et  seq.;  frauds  in  Maryland, 
ib. ;  Plaquemine  frauds,  ii.  433  ;  frauds  in  Pennsylvania,  ii.  433-436 ;  in  ]<!ew 
York,  ii.  436,  437  ;  in  Georgia,  ii.  437,  438;  the  frauds  all  on  one  side,  ii.  438; 
betting  one  of  the  chief  causes,  ii.  438,  439;  gambling  on  elections,  ii.  439-442: 
Mr.  Clay  the  legally-elected  candidate,  ii.  443. 

Everett,  Hon.  Edward,  his  statement  at  the  agricultural  meeting,  Derby,  England, 
ii.  316  ;  his  address  to  Mr.  Clay,  at  Bunker  hill,  with  Mr.  Clay's  reply,  ii.  344. 
Vol.  n.— 32. 


498  INDEX. 

Expunging  Resolution,  the,  ii.  122-137;  secret  of  Gen.  Jackson's  power, 
ii.  122-124;  its  culminatin?  point,  ii.  124;  remarks  of  Mr.  Calhoun  on  Gen- 
eral Jackson's  protest,  ii.  125-129;  the  tyrant's  plea,  ii.  127;  Gen.  Jackson's 
■war  on  the  senate,  ib. ;  u  half  conquest,  ii.  128;  origin  and  revival  of  the 
party  names  of  Whig  and  Tory,  ii.  128,  129;  Mr.  Calhoun  a  whisr,  ii.  129; 
philosophy  of  party  names,  ib. ;  why  whig  is  retained  and  tory  dropped,  ii.  130; 
influence  of  the  word  democrat,  ii.  131 ;  yeas  and  nays  on  the  expunging  reso- 
lution, ib. ;  remarks  of  Mr.  Clay,  ii.  132-134;  Mr.  "Webster's  protest,  ii.  134; 
the  ominous  comet,  ii.  135;  the  resolution,  ii.  136;  the  scene  in  the  senate  after 
the  act,  ii.  137. 

F. 

Fish,  Orlando,  his  protective  hat,  i.  122. 

Forrest,  B.  S.,  Esq.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  384. 

Frankfort,  Ky.,  "  an  inverted  hat,"  i.  96,  97. 

French  decrees,  i.  159. 

"Free  trade  and  seamen's  rights,"  the  perversion  of  these  terms,  i.  181. 

Free  trade,  effects  of,  as  compared  with  protection,  ii.  319-321. 

Frelinghuysen,  Hon.  Theodore,  ii.  425. 

G. 

Gee,  Joshua,  on  political  economy,  ii.  191, 192,  321,  322  j  his  doctrine  the  rule  of 

British  policy,  ii.  322. 
Germans,  two,  father  and  son,  tried  for  murder,  and  acquitted,  by  Mr.  Clay,  i.  85. 
Gibbons,  Hon.  Charles,  on  election  frauds,  ii.  436. 
Goulburn,  Henry,  Esq.,  British  commissioner  at  Ghent,  sends  a  joke  to  Mr.  Clay, 

and  gets  one  back,  i.  98. 
Gouverneur,  S.  D.,  Esq.,  his  controversy  with  Mr.  Blair,  of  the  Globe,  regarding 

Gen.  Jackson  and  Mr,  Monroe,  i.  254-257. 
Graham,  David,  and  others,  note  to  Mrs.  Clay,  with  Mr.  Clay's  reply,  ii.  339. 
Groves  versus  Slaughter,  U.  S.  court,  Mr.  Clay  counsel,  i.  83. 
Grundy,  Hon.  Felix,  "defending  5<a<e  criminals,"  i.  113;  a"  specie-ons"  man,  i.  Ilfi. 
Gurley,  Hon.  H.  H.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  380. 

H. 

Harrison,  William  Henry,  president,  his  accession  and  death,  ii.  355. 

Hale,  E.  J.,  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  393. 

Hamilton  J.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  392. 

Henderson,  Joseph,  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  405. 

Henrj',  John,  the  British  spy,  i.  160. 

Henry,  Patrick,  his  mistake,  and  way  of  getting  out,  ii.  9;  his  opinion  on  the 

purse  and  sword  question,  ii.  81. 
Houston,  Gen.,  his  overture  to  Mr.  Clay,  i.  420. 
Hughes,  Robert,  his  toast  to  Henry  Clay,  i.  27. 
Hudson,  Hon.  Charles,  evidence  of  his  report  to  the  28th  Congress,  on  reduction 

of  prices  of  protected  articles,  ii.  310. 

I. 

Introduction,  i.  5. 

Ingham,  Hon.  S.  D.,  pockets  Mr.  Kremer's  paper  to  keep  it  from  Mr.  Clay,  i.  299. 

"  "  his  speech  a  twin  to  Mr.  Kremer's  decline,  i.  315. 

Internal  improvements,  i.  428-452. 
Iron  manufactures,  ii.  310-312. 


INDEX.  499 

J. 

Jackson,  General,  passim  in  the  great  conspiracy;  passim  in  the  protective  policy, 

removal  of  the  deposites,  and  expunging  resolution,  which  see. 
Jefl'erson's  red  French  breeches,  i.  103. 
Johnston,  Hon.  J.  S.,  letter  from  Mr.  Clay  to,  ii.  213. 
Johnson,  Hon.  F.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  379, 
Johnston,  Hon.  J.  S.  "  "  "         i.  382. 

Jones,  C.  T.  "  "  «         i.  407. 

Johnson,  Hon.  R.  M.         "  "  "         i.  425. 

K. 

Kent,  Gov.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  387. 
Kentucky  senate,        "  "  "  i.  392. 

King,  Hon.  Rufus,  touching  the  public  lands,  i.  473. 

L. 

Lafayette,  General,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  382. 

Large,  Daniel,  "  "  "  i.  404. 

Letcher,  Hon.  R.  P.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  380,  418. 

Liverpool,  Lord,  asks  Mr.  Clay  a  question,  i.  98. 

Lincoln,  Hon.  Mr.,  Mr.  Clay's  proposal  to  abate  his  wish,  i.  113. 

Little,  Hon.  P.,  his  evidence  about  Mr.  Kremer,  i.  299. 

Lowell,  Mass.,  its  manufactories,  investments,  and  profits  of  labor  there,  ii.  325, 

Lynde,  Seth  S.,  note  to  Mr.  Claj^,  with  bonnet  for  Mrs.  Clay,  and  reply,  ii.  348. 

M. 

Marshall,  chief  justice,  his  opinion  on  the  public  land  question,  i,  473;  and  evi- 
dence on  the  conspiracy,  i.  388,  389. 

Madison,  James,  on  the  public  lands,  i.  474 ;  and  on  conspiracy,  i.  390. 

Manufactures,  as  connected  with  agriculture,  and  other  interests,  ii.  314,  ei  seq. 

Marshall,  Humphrey,  his  duel  with  Mr.  Clay,  i.  47. 

Markley,  Hon.  P.  S.,  his  letter  in  reply  to  Mr.  Buchanan,  i.  355. 

McArthur,  Hon.  D.,  his. evidence,  i.  377. 

McDuffie,  Mr.,  not  an  accuser  of  Mr.  Clay,  i.  345-349. 

McKim,  John,  and  others,  letter  to  Mr.  Clay,  with  his  reply,  ii.  334. 

McLane,  Louis,  mission  to  London,  1829,  to  negotiate  a  commercial  treaty — more 
hurt  than  good,  ii.  144. 

McLean,  Hon.  Wm.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  378. 

McLean,  Hon.  John,  «  «  "  i.  388. 

Metcalf,  Hon.  T.,  "  «  "  i.  379. 

Morgan,  Mr.  Thos.,  "  "  "  i.  405. 

Mercer,  Hon.  Mr.,  his  remark  on  the  Missouri  question,  i.  279. 

Monroe,  James,  and  General  Jackson,  on  Seminole  campaign,  and  secret  oroVrs. 
i.  253-257. 

N. 

Napoleon,  Mr.  Clay  proposes  to  make  him  a  democrat,  i.  98;  his  policy,  ii 
171-174. 

Naudain,  A.,  and  others,  letter  to  Mr.  Clay,  with  his  reply,  ii.  335,  336. 

Niles,  Wm.  O.,  his  evidence  on  conspiracy,  i.  388. 

Nullification  declared,  ii.  218;  extracts  from  the  official  documents  of  the  nulli- 
fiers,  showing  their  views,  ii.  2G5-267  ;  reply  to  them,  ii.  267-273  ;  change  of 
views  in  the  south,  ii.  273  ;  "  Notes  on  Political  Economy,  by  a  Southern 
Planter,"  being  a  defence  of  the  protective  policy,  ib.,  el  seq. ;  extracts  from 
this  work,  u.  274-288. 


500  INDEX. 

O. 

Opinion,  history  of,  on  the  protective  policy,  ii.  289-304;  General  Washinijton's 
opinion,  ii.  289;  Jefferson's,  ii.  290;  Madison's,  ii.  290,  29J ;  Monroe's,  ii. 
29 J,  292;  J.  Q.  Adams's,  ii.  292;  Jackson's,  ii.  292,  293  ;  opinion  of  the  Tam- 
many society,  in  1819,  ii.  294-300  ;  of  the  first  convention  of  the  states,  (it  Annap^^ 
olis,  1786,  and  of  the  convention  to  form  the  constitution,  ii.  300,  301 ;  of  the 
first  Congress  under  the  constitution,  ii.  301 ;  remarks  on  the  position  of  the 
Tammany  society  in  1819,  and   of  General  Jacksoa  in   1824,  ii.  301-304. 

Oregon  question  settled  by  Mr.  Clay,  i.  139,  140. 


Patterson,  Hon.  Jnc,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  379. 

Panama  congress,  i.  137-140. 

Perkins,  T.  H.,  and  others,  letter  to  Mr.  Clay,  with  his  reply,  ii.  342-344. 

Phelps,  Mrs.,  tried  for  murder  and  acquitted,  Mr.  Clay  counsel,  i.  84. 

Pitkin's,  Timothy,  statistical  view  on  British  colonial  policy,  ii.  192,  193;  on  bal- 
ance of  trade,  ii.  318. 

Plumer,  Hon.  Wm.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  384. 

Polk,  President,  his  opinion  of  the  effect  of  a  protective  tariiT  on  revenue,  ii.  166  ; 
his  statement  in  Tennessee,  1839,  about  the  compromise,  ii.  259. 

Polk,  President,  turns  out  of  ofiice  Mr.  Duralde,  son-in-law  of  Mr.  Clay,  ii.  354. 

Political  Economy,  ii.  Notes  on  Political  Economy,  by  a  Southern  Planter,  ex- 
tracts, ii.  273-288 ;  demagogues  go  for  free  trade,  ii.  275 ;  old  nations  never  go 
for  it,  ib. ;  it  would  be  wealth  to  a  few,  and  poverty  to  most,  ib.  ;  the  internal 
improvements  of  the  United  States  have  enriched  foreigners,  and  made  bank- 
rupts of  Americans,  ii.  276,  277 ;  protective  duties  can  not  be  a  tax,  ii.  277, 
278  ;  spendthrift  nations,  like  other  spendthrifts,  are  doomed  to  poverty,  ii.  279, 
280  ;  the  United  States  can  produce  raw  cotton  enough  for  all  the  world,  cheaper 
than  any  other  part  of  the  world,  ii.  282,  283  ;  under  protection,  American  cot- 
ton u:ianufacturers  can  compete  with  British,  ii.  283  ;  manufactures  benefit  all 
producers  of  raw  materials,  ii.  284  ;  Americans  have  heretofore  legislated  for  the 
benefit  of  foreign  nations,  ii.  285;  income  of  England,  two  hundred  millions,  of 
the  United  States,  nothing,  often  minus,  ii.  287. 

Political  Economy  as  it  respects  the  Protective  Policy,  ii.  305-332 ;  pro- 
tective duties  not  a  tax,  but  a  rescue  from  taxation,  ii.  305-313;  errors  arising 
from  the  technicalities  of  political  science,  ii.  306  ;  the  true  proposition,  ii.  307  ; 
the  fact  that  decides  the  question,  ii.  308 ;  fifty  per  cent,  tax,  in  cost  of  im- 
ported articles  of  manufacture,  ib. ;  sketch  of  British  taxation,  ii.  308,  309  ;  ev- 
idence of  Mr.  Hudson's  report  to  28th  Congress,  on  reduction  of  prices  of  pro- 
tected articles,  ii.  310;  reduction  of  prices  on  cotton  fabrics,  ii.  310,  311  ;  how 
protection  affects  iron  manufactures,  ii.  311,  312;  how  the  fifty  per  cent,  saved 
is  distributed,  ii.  312;  protection  as  it  affects  agriculture,  ii.  313-317;  amount 
of  wool  grown,  ii.  314;  difference  between  a  home  and  foreign  market  explain- 
ed, ii.  316;  Mr.  Everett's  statement  on  agriculture,  at  Derby,  England, 
balance  of  trade,  ii.  317;  Pitkin's  statements  on  balance  of  trade,  ii.  318;  history 
of  protective  policy  in  the  United  States,  ii.  318,  319  ;  balances  of  trade  in  Great 
Britain  and  United  States,  and  their  respective  tariffs,  compared,  ii.  319,  320; 
Mr.  Triplett's  statements  on  tariff,  ii.  321  ;  foreign  duties  on  American  tobacco, 
ib. ;  Joshua  Gee's  doctrine,  the  guide  of  British  policy,  ii.  321,  322  ;  aggregate 
of  balances  against  the  United  States,  from  first,  ii.  323  ;  results  of  the  tariff  of 
1842,  on  revenue  and  currency,  ii.  323,  324;  United  States  have  kept  their  im- 
provements, and  lost  all  their  money,  ii.  324 ;  domestic  exchanges,  and  importance 
of  home  trade,  ib. ;  effects  of  British  machine-power  on  American  manufactures. 


INDEX.  501 

ib. ;  effects  of  protection  on  wages  of  labor,  ii.  325;  on  prices  of  protected  ar- 
ticles, ib.  ;  Lowell,  its  establishments,  investments,  operatives,  their  profits — 
profits  of  labor  10  to  1  of  money,  ib. ;  Captain  Marryat's  statement,  ib. ;  report 
of  British  house  of  commons,  showing  who  are  their  best  customers,  ii.  325, 
326 ;  the  Illinois  farmer  pays  26  bushels  of  corn  for  a  British  cloth  coat,  ii. 
326 ;  Mr.  Kennedy's  report  to  27th  Congress,  revealing  the  secret  of  American 
debts  abroad,  ib. ;  the  principle  of  the  new  doctrine  of  political  economy,  ii.  327, 
328 ;  the  great  battle  of  freedom,  ii.  328 ;  the  "  let-alone"  principle,  ib. ;  Brit- 
ish policy  not  tending  to  free  trade,  but  the  contrary,  ii.  329;  the  protective  pol- 
icy does  not  diminish,  but  extends,  commerce,  ii.  329,  330  ;  effects  of  the  pro- 
tective policy  on  the  currency,  330-332 ;  how  foreign  factors  fleece  the  Ameri- 
can people,  ii.  332. 
Protective  Policy,  the,  ii.  138-212;  a  new  doctrine,  ii.  138-142;  universal 
free  trade  hostile  to  American  freedom,  ii.  139,  et  seq. ;  relations  of  American 
labor  to  European  and  other  foreign  labor,  ib. ;  free  trade  a  license  to  foreign 
taxation,  ii.  140;  labor  the  arm  of  despotic  power,  ib. ;  the  protective  policy  the 
only  shield  of  American  freedom,  ii.  141,  142;  Mr.  Clay's  debut  on  the  protec- 
tive policy,  ii.  142;  his  first  speech  on  the  subject  in  Congress,  ii.  142,  143; 
protection  of  navigation  and  navigation  acts,  ii.  143-145  :  fraudulent  use  of 
flags  under  commercial  treaties,  ii.  145;  what  would  be  the  effect  of  free  trade 
on  American  navigation,  ib.  ;  condition  of  American  manufactures  after  the 
war  of  1812,  ib. ;  tariff  of  1816,  its  inadequacy,  and  Mr.  Clay's  predictions,  ib. ; 
Mr.  Clay's  great  efforts  on  the  tariff  bill  of  1820,  ii.  146-153  ;  Mr.  Justice  Bald- 
win's evidence,  ii.  146;  a  new  political  epoch,  ii.  147;  wants  of  man,  ii.  148; 
the  United  States  dependent  colonies  of  England,  ib. ;  Isaac  Shelby,  ii.  149 ;  in- 
fluence of  manufactures  and  foreign  commerce  on  peace  and  war,  ii.  150  ;  the 
principle  of  "let  things  alone,"  ii.  151,  152;  the  nation  that  is  Jewed,  ii.  152; 
failure  of  the  tariff  bill  of  1820,  ii.  146;  disastrous  consequences,  ii.  153;  Mr. 
Clay's  feelings,  ii.  154  ;  his  great  eflbrts  for  the  tariff  of  1824,  ii.  154-174  ;  two 
plans  of  policy,  ii.  155 ;  the  increase  of  producing  power,  and  decrease  of  for- 
eign demand  for  its  products,  requires  an  American  system,  ii.  156,  etseq.;  they 
who  can  not  sell,  can  not  buy,  ii.  157  ;  the  machine,  or  artificial  power  of  Great 
Britain,  ii.  159  ;  a  nation  without  the  arts,  weak  and  vulnerable,  ii.  160  ;  Mr. 
Clay's  statistical  measure  of  the  wealth  of  nations — interesting  and  instructive 
results,  ii.  160-163  ;  anomalous  policy  of  the  United  States,  neither  fit  for  peace 
nor  war,  ii.  163  ;  a  statistical  argument  on  the  cotton-growing  interest,  ii.  164; 
navigation  follows  agriculture  and  manufactures,  ii.  165 ;  balance  of  trade,  ii. 
165, 166  ;  Mr.  Clay's  and  Mr.  Polk's  views  of  the  effects  of  a  protective  tariff 
on  revenue,  ii.  166  ;  dependence  and  independence,  ii.  167 ;  manufactures  re- 
quire the  aid  of  protection,  ii.  168;  British  policy  for  the  United  States,  ii.  169; 
European  powers  not  relaxing  their  protective  policy,  ii.  170;  Russian  policy, 
ii.  170,  171 ;  Napoleon's  policy,  ii.  171-174;  opinion  of  British  statesmen  and 
economists,  on  the  policy  of  the  United  States,  ii.  174,  175;  retrospective  view 
of  the  American  protective  policy,  ii.  175  ;  passage  of  the  bill  of  1824,  ii.  175; 
opening  of  a  new  era,  ii.  176-178  ;  General  Jackson's  feud  with  Mr.  Calhoun, 
and  jealousy  of  Mr.  Clay,  }i.  176  ;  he  resolves  to  pluck  Mr.  Clay's  honors  from 
him  by  destroying  the  protective  tariff,  ii.  177,  178  ;  nations  foot-balls  to  kings, 
ii.  177  ;  moral  causes  control  history,  ib. ;  Mr.  Clay  returns  to  Congress,  ii. 
178  ;  comes  to  the  rescue,  by  a  resolution  in  the  senate  ii.  ib.  ;  its  parliament- 
ary advantage,  ii.  179  ;  who  responsible  for  the  tariff  of  1828,  ii.  178,  also  189  ; 
Mr.  Clay  considered  the  policy  of  protection  as  "established,"  ii.  179;  his  pa- 
cific nnd  patriotic  professions  not  reciprocated,  ii.  180;  General  Hayne,  of  S.  C, 
commences  the  attack,  ib.  ;  Mr.  Clay  is  roused  to  one  of  his  greatest  efforts,  ib. ; 
the  battle  all  to  be  fought  over  again,  ii.  181  ;  two  cycles  of  national  poverty 


502  INDEX. 

and  wealth,  noticed  by  Mr.  Cla)',  ii.  182,  183;  position  of  Mr.  Claj'  at  this 
time,  ii.  184;  an  item  of  statistics,  ii.  185;  interests  embraced  by  the  protec- 
tive policy,  ii.  185,  186;  authorities  for  protection,  ii.  187  ;  doctrine  of  South 
Carolina  in  1808,  ii.  188;  protective  principle  of  the  tariflof  1816,  ib.  ;  free 
trade  bays  the  moon,  ii.  190  ;  confession  of  a  British  statesman,  ii.  190,  191  ; 
doctrine  of  Joshua  Gee,  ii.  191,  192;  British  old  clothes  good  enough  for  Amer- 
icans, ii.  192  ;  history  of  British  colonial  policy  for  a  century  previous  to  the 
American  Revolution,  ii.  192,  193  ;  Mr.  Clay's  argument  on  the  cotton-planting 
interest,  ii.  193-200;  increase  of  the  home  market  for  raw  cotton,  ii.  197  ;  Mr. 
Clay's  argumentum  ad  absurdum,  ii.  198 ;  the  alleged  grievous  tax  on  South 
Carolina  examined,  ii.  198,  199  ;  another  absurdity,  ii.  199  ;  prices  of  protected 
articles  cheapened,  ii.  200,  et  seq. ;  duty  of  the  statesman,  ii.  201  ;  effect  of 
competition,  ii.  203,  et  seq. ;  supply  and  demand,  ii.  204  ;  duties  not  a  part  of 
prices,  ib. ;  evils  of  fickle  legislation,  ii.  205,  206  ;  protection  favorable  to  all 
branches  of  agriculture,  ii.  206-209  ;  importance  of  the  protective  policy  to  pre- 
pare for  war,  ii.  210  ;  nine  things  proved  by  Mr.  Clay,  211 ;  a  finished  argu- 
ment, ii.  212. 

Q. 

Quincy,  Hon.  Mr.,  Mr.  Clay's  reply  to  him  and  others,  in  the  war  1812,  i.  173-181. 

R. 

Reflections,  ii.  457-488;  regal  power  risen  in  the  United  States,  ii.  457,  458; 
disappointment  to  the  world  and  to  the  people,  ib.  ;  misgivings  as  to  the  perma- 
nence of  republican  institutions,  ii.  459  ;  heresies  of  General  Jackson,  ib.  ;  Mr. 
Clay  merged  in  the  history  of  the  country,  ii.  460  ;  has  endeavored  to  save  it 
from  regal  power,  ib. ;  the  effect  of  his  services  on  the  public  mind,  ii.  460,  461 ; 
his  fame  associated  with  the  protective  policy,  ii.  461;  review  of  parts  of  the 
argument  for  the  protective  policy,  ii.  461-464  ;  restatement  of  the  new  doctrine, 
ii.  465-468;  President  Monroe  stated  it  incidentally,  ii.  466  ;  what  the  nation 
has  lost  for  want  of  protection,  during  the  term  of  its  existence,  ii.  468,  469; 
the  Hon.  Hu?h  L.  White's  evidence  regarding  the  compromise  of  1833,  ii.  470  ; 
a  new  aspect  of  political  history  in  the  cause  of  General  Jackson's  ascendency, 
ii.  470-473  ;  the  executive  veto  fatal  to  democratic  power,  ii.  473  ;  the  treaty- 
making  power  arrogated  by  one  branch,  but  belongs  to  two,  ib. ;  executive  con- 
trol of  legislation  by  uttering  opinion  in  advance,  an  arrogation,  and  destructive 
of  freedom,  ii.  474  ;  the  nation  half  subdued  by  regal  power,  ii.  475  ;  the  Jack- 
son regime  dissolved  in  1840,  ib.  ;  rally  and  success  of  its  fragments  in  1844, 
ib.  ;  what  they  propose  to  do,  ii.  476  ;  Mr.  Clay  settled  the  Oregon  question, 
when  secretary  of  state,  ib. ;  importance  of  "  a  southern  planter's"  argument, 
ii.  477  ;  doctrine  of  a  Mississippi  convention  of  cotton-planters,  ib.  ;  the  Holli- 
daysburg  (Pennsylvania)  tariff  convention  of  1845,  ii.  478,  479  ;  coadjutors  of 
Mr.  Clay,  ii.  479,  480  ;  the  public  land  question  reviewed,  ii.  480-482 ;  differ- 
ence between  domestic  and  foreign  debts,  ii.  480,  481  ;  protection  and  distribu- 
tion twin  helps,  ii.  481,  482  ;  protection  and  the  currency,  ii.  482  ;  national  and 
state  banks,  ii.  482,  483  ;  fickleness  of  public  policy,  its  evils,  ii.  483,  484 ;  the 
war  of  classes,  ii.  484;  results  of  the  action  of  the  Harrisburg  convention  of 
1839,  ii.  485-487;  the  Harrison  administration,  ii.  485;  resignation  of  his  cab- 
inet under  Mr.  Tyler,  ib.  ;  the  aim  of  Mr.  Tyler,  ii.  486;  vigor  of  whig  princi- 
ples, ib. ;  character  of  Mr.  Tyler's  administration,  ii.  487  ;  position  of  the  whig 
party,  ib. ;  a  glance  at  the  future,  ii.  488. 

Randolph,  John,  his  duel  with  Mr.  Clay,  ii.  262,  264 ;  letter  from  Mr.  Clay  to 
Judge  Brooke,  concerning  the  duel,  ii.  262  ;  reconciliation,  ib.  ;  letter  from  Mr. 
Clay  to  Judge  Brooke,  concerning  the  reconciliation,  ib. ;  Mr.  Faulkner's  state- 


INDEX.  503 

ment  of  Mr.  Randolph's  speech,  in  which  he  expressed  reliance  on  Mr.  Clay  to 
hush  the  storm  of  nullification,  ib. ;  carried  to  the  senate  in  a  weak  state  to 
hear  Mr.  Clay  on  the  compromise,  ib. ;  his  interview  with  Mr.  Clay  on  the 
Missouri  question,  ii.  263  ;  Mr.  Clay's  remonstrance  with  him  about  his  conduct 
in  the  house,  and  his  going  to  the  speaker  (Mr.  Clay)  for  protection  against  a 
threatened  assault,  ii.  264;  his  resolutions  on  counting  the  electoral  votes,  in 
1821,  i.  284  ;  taunts  Mr.  Clay  for  defects  of  education,  i.  23  ; 

Rives,  Hon.  Wm.  C,  his  debate  with  Mr.  Clay,  on  Mr.  Tyler's  veto,  ii.  369. 

Robertson,  George,  Esq.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  383. 

Robertson,  A.,  Esq.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  385. 

Robertson,  Mr.,  British  statesman,  his  definition  of  British  policy,  ii.  169. 

S. 

Sample,  Wm.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  405. 

Scott,  Hon.  John,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  380. 

Shelby,  Isaac,  governor,  Kentucky,  a  model  character,  in  domestic  economy,  ii.  149. 

Simms,  R.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  405. 

Sloane,  Hon.  J.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  378,  419. 

South  America,  its  cause,  i.  210-251 ;  not  hopeless,  i.  250. 

Spectator,  London,  its  plan  of  policy  for  the  United  States,  ii.  169. 

Storrs,  Hon.  Mr.,  of  New  York,  his  speech  on  Mr.  Clay's  appeal,  i.  305. 

Stjb-Treasury, ii.  29-61,  passim;  extra  session  of  1837,  ii.  29;  Mr.  Van  Buren 
proposes  the  independent  treasury,  ib. ;  Mr.  Clay's  first  speech  on  it,  30-36, 
passim ;  Mr.  Van  Buren's  and  Mr.  Buchanan's  misstatements  about  causes  of 
public  misfortune,  ii.  31,  34;  Mr.  Clay's  statement  of  the  causes,  ii.  32;  cor- 
rection of  an  error  about  the  United  States  bank,  ii.  32-34 ;  want  of  free  gov- 
ernment cause  of  trouble,  ii.  34;  divorce  of  bank  and  state,  ii.  35;  executive 
power,  ii.  35,  36  ;  Mr.  Clay's  great  speech  on  the  sub-treasury  in  1838,  ii.  36- 
48;  the  solemnity  of  his  exordium,  ii.  36;  plan  of  this  speech,  ii.  38;  proof  of 
General  Jackson's  aim  at  a  government  bank,  from  1829,  ii.  39-41 ;  Mr.  Van 
Buren  a  particeps  criminis,  ii.  41-43;  Mr.  Van  Buren's  bad  faith  about  the 
treasury  order,  ii.  43  ;  a  new  bankrupt  bill,  ii.  44;  character  and  tendency  of  a 
government  bank,  ii.  44,  45;  receivers-general,  instruction  of  history,  ii.  46; 
effects  of  sub-treasury  under  Pharaoh,  king  of  Egypt,  in  Spain,  Rome,  Greece, 
and  other  countries,  ii.  47 ;  Mr.  Clay's  peroration,  ii.  47,  48 ;  the  sub-treasury 
the  political  ruin  of  Mr.  Van  Buren,  ii.  49 ;  Mr.  Buchanan's  theory  on  the 
wages  of  labor,  and  Mr.  Clay's  reply,  ii.  49-52;  a  new  doctrine  on  this  subject, 
ii.  52-56 ;  the  credit  system  in  England,  and  in  the  United  States,  teachings  of 
history,  ii.  56-58 ;  the  president  in  a  storm  with  his  India-rubber  cloak,  ii.  60 ; 
the  president,  cashier,  and  teller  of  a  government  bank,  the  national  executive, 
ib. ;  passage  of  the  sub-treasury  bill,  ii.  61. 

T. 

Tariff,  British,  and  American,  compared,  ii.  319-321 ;  tariff  of  1842,  its  fruits,  ii. 

323. 
Taxes,  taxation,  tax,  protective  duties  not  a  tax,  but  a  rescue  from  taxation,  ii 

305-313  ;  sketch  of  British  taxation,  ii.  308,  309. 
Tennessee  legislature,  the  non  sequitur,  i.  320. 
Thompson,  Hon.  P.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  380. 
Thomas,  Roland,  his  evidence  of  Henry  Clay's  character  in  youth,  i.  20. 
Tillinghast,  J.  L.,  sends  compliments  of  citizens  of  Providence,  R.  I.  to  Mr.  Clay, 

ii.  341. 
Tilford,  John,  his  letter  to  the  author,  about  Mr.  Clay's  rescue  from  debt,  i.  44. 
Tinsley,  Col.  Thomas,  takes  an  interest  in  the  boy,  Henry  Clay,  i.  20. 


504  INDEX. 

Tinsley,  Peter,  takes  Henry  into  his  office,  i.  20. 
Tobacco,  American,  duties  on,  in  foreign  ports,  ii.  321. 
Todd,  C.  S.,  Esq.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  383. 
Tory  ministers,  Mr.  Clay's  toast  at  Mr.  Van  Buren's  table,  i.  109. 
Tory,  origin  and  revival  of  the  name,  ii.  129,  130. 
Trimble,  Hon.  D.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  379,  381. 
Triplett,  Hon.  P.,  his  statement  of  comparative  duties  in  United  States  and  in  En- 
rope,  ii.  321. 
Trotter,  George  J.,  kills  Charles  Wickliffe  in  a  duel,  i.  93. 
Truesdali,  J.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  405. 
Tyler,  Mr.  John,  never  president,  ii.  355,  356  ;  his  infamy,  ii.  356-358; 

V. 

Van  Buren,  Mr.,  a  speech  of,  to  his  Britannic  majesty,  i.  109;  his  "three  great 
battles,"  i.  113;  he "  underrates  himself,"  i.  115;  "the  honored  tool,"  i.  IIG, 
ii.  42;  "a  good  democrat,"  i.  116. 

Vance,  Hon.  Joseph,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  377. 

Vertner,  D.,  Esq.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  384. 

Vinton,  Hon.  S.  F.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  378. 

W. 
Warner,  Mrs.  Ann,  her  counterpane  to  Mr.  Clay,  ii.  451. 
War  of  1812,  i.  159-185  ;  causes,  i.  159  ;  Mr.  Clay's  agency— see  Mr.  Clay. 
Waring,  J.  U.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  408. 

Washington,  General,  his  respect  for  the  co-ordinate  power  of  the  senate,  ii.  121. 
Watkins,  Capt.  Henry,  marries  Henry  Clay's  mother,  i.  19  ;  his  kindness  to  Hcn- 

TY,  i.  19,  20,  21. 
Webster,  Hon.  Daniel,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  390  ;  his  resolution  to 
send  a  commissioner  to  Greece,  supported  by  Mr.  Clay,  i.  246-249;  cites  Gen. 
Washington's  executive  deference  to  the  co-ordinate  authority,  ii.  121 ;  his  prot- 
est on  the  expunging  resolution,  ii.  134. 
Wellington,  Duke  of,  and  Mr.  Clay,  at  Paris,  i.  98. 
Whig,  origin  and  revival  of  the  name,  ii.  129,  130. 

White,  Hon.  Hugh  L.,  his  evidence  about  the  compromise  of  1833,  ii.  470. 
Whittlesey,  Kon.  E.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  378. 
White,  Hon.  D.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  380. 
Wickliffe,  Charles,  Mr.  Clay's  defence  of  him,  i.  90-93. 
Willis,  the  murderer,  cleared  by  Mr.  Clay,  i.  86  ;  Mr.  Clay  tells  him  he  ought  \o 

have  been  hanged,  i.  96. 
Wise,  Henry  A.,  member  of  "the  corporal's  guard,"  rejection  as  nominee  to  the 

court  of  France,  and  mission  to  Brazil,  ii.  371,  372. 
Wit,  definition  of,  i.  95. 

Wooley,  A.  V/.,  Esq.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  384. 
Wool-growing  interests  protected,  &c.,  ii.  314,  et  scq. 
Workman,  Samuel,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  405. 
Wright,  Hon.  J.  C,  of  Ohio,  his  speech  on  Mr.  Clay's  appeal,  i.  304;  his  evido';ce 

on  the  conspiracy,  i.  378. 
Wylie,  Rev.  A.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy,  i.  406. 

y. 

Young,  John  S.,  his  evidence  on  the  conspiracy  (official),  i.  391. 
Yeas  and  nays  on  the  expunging  resolution,  ii.  131. 

THE   END. 


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